Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The characters of Roswell belong to is founder - Jason Katims, Twentieth Century Fox Corporation, Regency Entertainment, and Monarchy B.V.

Summary: It started with a pacifier. Liz Parker might have just been a toddler, but the war was nevertheless on. It did not help matters that her sworn enemy, the pacifier-thief, became best friends with her big brother, forcing them to occupy the same areas on more than one occasion. Would they ever declare peace or would they go on fighting forever?

Author's note: I did not plan on writing anymore stories for a while. I'm in my last year of becoming a veterinarian and my schedule is crammed with diagnoses, drug properties and surgeries. But the second I decided to go on a hiatus from writing fanfiction, I was bombarded with inspiration for a new story. I've been writing on this story on and off since December, because I wanted to have enough material so I wouldn't leave you high and dry.

This story is supposed to be fairly uncomplicated (compared to my other stories). It's snapshots of Max and Liz's lives, having more or less grown up together. And then of course, there's the undeniable background noise that is Max and Liz. Since it's snapshots, it will jump in time. But I'm going to be very specific in dating the chapters and will try my best to not confuse you. If I do, let me know, okay? And I'll sort it out.

Dedication: This story is dedicated to the people over at Roswell Playground, for being a constant support in my life nowadays and for encouraging me to start posting this.

A special thank you to Elizabeth (Gigo) for beta-reading. You're the best and I can always count on you.

Feedback: No objections there

Roswell Fanatics Awards Round 15

for Max and Liz in the closet (Prologue)

for Best Villain - Nancy Parker

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Prologue: Seven Minutes with the Enemy

Ryan Anderson’s closet
Saturday
(2001) Max is 16, Liz is 15

Liz squeezed up against the wall as his warm body struggled to occupy the same small area in which she was currently trapped.

“Max!” she exclaimed as his foot stepped on hers. “You’re stepping on my foot.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled. He fumbled in the dark after something to hold onto, but he seemed to only come up with warm skin against his hand.

“Stop groping me,” she whispered harshly, making him smirk in the darkness.

“You wish,” he said, earning a well-positioned smack from Liz across his chest.

“I can’t believe you got me into this. God, how did I end up in here with you?”

“Come on, Lizzie. At least it’s not Pervy Perry.”

He didn’t have to make out her features in the darkness to visualize her eyes rolling skywards at his statement.

“Whatever.”

There was a pause, their soft breathing seemingly magnified in the silence. Sounds from the party outside drifted through the wooden door, emphasizing once again why they were here.

Max’s voice broke the silence. “They can tell, you know.”

“They can’t tell,” she said, pure mockery in her voice.

“Your lips get swollen.”

“They won’t get swollen.”

“How do you know? Is there something I should know, Shorty? You haven’t been getting close and personal to Sean have you?”

An irritated scoff escaped her lips. “As if I would let him get anywhere close to me.”

“Sooo… If there’s no one else, how do you know?”

“Because,” Liz said stubbornly, hating the one-worded statement as soon as it left her mouth. That statement alone was enough to sum up her meager age of 15. Could she sound more childish?

“When you kiss…” a shiver raced through Liz as Max voice got darker and she could feel the air shift around them to accommodate the increasing closeness between the two. She frowned at her own reaction, wondering what Max was up to. “…more blood will flow into your lips, making them swollen and red.”

His body pressed into hers and her breath hitched in her throat as anticipation trembled through her body, quickly followed by the innate reflex to push him away. Which she did.

“Max Evans,” she said with noticeable warning in her voice. If there had been enough room she probably would have pushed her index finger into his chest to further emphasize the scolding tone in her voice. “If you think that you’re gonna lay one hand on me…”

She could feel his breath on her face as he spoke slightly above her face. He had always been almost a head taller than her. “They’re gonna talk, Lizzie. You know they will. Remember Cathy? That’s gonna be you tomorrow. You’re gonna be labeled the prude one and that label is gonna stick.”

Liz had never been afraid of moving against the stream. She had never been one to seek out attention or approval from society. She moved in her own world and followed her own rules. But still, even though she didn’t really care what anyone else thought about her, she had seen the effects of being labeled.

Looking up at the boy she had known since he had stolen her pacifier when she was one year old, she mentally shrugged, thinking that it could’ve been worse. She could’ve been stuck in a closet with Pervy Perry.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “But for the record, I’m doing this to save your ass so they don’t think you’ve lost your sex appeal.”

Her eyes had finally gotten accustomed to the lack of light and she could clearly see the smirk forming on his face. “Would never happen.”

She sighed. “Whatever.”

Max raised an amused eyebrow at her strong disinterest before leaning in. Liz found herself looking up at him again, her body suddenly tensing in nervousness. Reality had just hit her. Max Evans was going to be her first kiss. Max Evans. Of all boys. She sighed again, wondering who she had wronged in a previous life to deserve this fate.

His voice brought her back to reality. “You’re looking a bit flushed, Parker.”

“Shut up,” she whispered, her nervousness suddenly having given away to insecurity as another thought had coursed through her ever so busy mind.

Max had kissed a lot of girls. He had, against her will, personally told her about three of those girls. He had experience. She didn’t. The last person Liz wanted to feel inadequate in front of was Max. It was known to anyone who knew them that Max and Liz had always been in a constant battle with each other, about everything. If she sucked at this, Max would possibly never let her live it down. He would quite possibly sing it at the top of his lungs while dancing across her grave.

“Relax,” he said softly, which actually made her do just that.

“You better do a good job so that they will believe us,” Liz threatened, her last word drowned in the touch of his lips against hers.

Liz didn’t dare to move. What was she supposed to do? Was she supposed to move her lips? How did people do this? She always thought it would come naturally and sort itself out, but there was nothing in her body telling her right now what to do. And it was a lot wetter than she thought. And softer.

His chuckle sent vibrations against her lips, causing her to smile in response at the sensation. That was more like it.

“God, Parker. Help me out here. You’re like a fish!”

He barely got the last word out before he was shoved as far away from her as possible. Which wasn’t very far considering the lack of space.

“Get off me,” she bit out, his words stinging her.

His hands were quickly on her arms. “Hey,” he said gently, but the laughter was still evident in his voice making her pout even more prominent. “Sorry. Didn’t mean it like that. You just… Just go with it, okay?”

“This is stupid,” she whispered, frustrated beyond belief as she felt like crying. No way was she going to throw a prissy fit in front of her arch nemesis. “I never should’ve come to this party. I never should’ve walked downstairs. Of course you were going to lure me into a stupid game. Of course I was going to end up in a closet with you, expecting to make out. It’s all just soo typical. How could I not see it? It’s just my lu-“

His lips cut off her babble and this time, she let herself sink into the kiss. She let his fingers melt against her cheeks as he cradled her between his hands, guiding her mouth against his. She met his movements with strokes of her own and it only took a few seconds before she stopped thinking about it and just felt.

Felt how good he tasted. How warm he was as he pressed up against her. How soft his lips were and how almost gentle he was when he kissed her. She never knew that the guy who usually would tackle her to the floor to get the last potato chip in the bag could harbor such gentleness.

But then he began to nibble her lips with his teeth and she went from dreaminess into something completely different. Something was building up inside of her. A hunger. A hunger that could only be stilled by having him kissing her. More and more.

And then he pulled away.

A soft groan of protest swept across her lips and her hand rose to her lips in a reflex motion.

He had an odd look in his eyes as he regarded her. It made her so self-conscious that she had to avert her gaze.

“Do they feel swollen?” he asked, his voice oddly husky which made her miss a breath.

“Wh-“ she had to lick her lips, feeling almost dazed. “What?”

“Your lips,” he clarified and her face heated at his words.

She had just kissed someone. More than that. She had just made out with someone.

He continued to look at her closely, his gaze penetrating. Then he appeared to shake it off and a grin slowly spread across his face. “You did good, Parker. You weren’t all that bad.”

His words slammed her back into her own body and she glared at him. “Gee, I’m glad I didn’t disappoint.”

They both jumped in fright as someone pounded hard on the door.

“Pull your pants up! Time’s up!”

Max raised an eyebrow and looked at her expectantly. “I hope your brother didn’t hear that. He would kill me.”

“If Mike heard that, he would be ripping down the door right now,” Liz said.

Max nodded. “Yeah. Maybe we shouldn’t tell him that we…uh…you know.”

She rolled her eyes. “Kissed? God, Max. I thought I was the one embarrassed about this. You can’t even say the word.”

“I just kissed Mike’s little sister. It’s not exactly something I would go around and brag about.”

She swallowed back the hurt. His words normally didn’t get to her, but for some reason those stung more than others.

“I think Mike’s gonna find out anyway. It’s not like the whole school won’t talk.”

“Maybe,” Max said and shrugged. “At least I can blame it on the game.”

Let's see what's going on in Max and Liz's life 7 years after the closet incident, shall we?

Btw, things that have happened in the past are alluded to in this chapter. This is a snapshot that is yet to come. These snapshots will not be in strict chronological order.

1. Rich Damsel in Distress

The Apartment
Sunday afternoon
The Present (2008); Max is 23, Liz is 22

“I’m bored.”

Max Evans raised an eyebrow and looked over at his best friend’s sister, slowly tracing her very shapely legs from the tips of her toes as they touched the wall to the miniscule denim shorts she was wearing. His eyes traveled further down her body to her face, which was turning slightly red from all the blood that was rushing to her head due to her rather upside-down position.

“Watch some TV.”

As if that was the most ridiculous suggestion ever, she expelled an extended, “Nooo.”

“Eat something.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Go shopping.”

“I’m broke.”

Max rolled his eyes and went back to reading his magazine. “Right.”

Silence.

Liz Parker groaned. “I’m sooo bored.”

Max sighed. “Just find something to do instead of bitching about it.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Liz whined.

A very confusing mixed feeling of irritation and amusement went through Max. He had been having a lot of those lately, where he couldn’t quite pinpoint his relationship to Liz.

He felt like snapping at her at the same time as kissing her senseless.

He shook his head, trying to shake off the thoughts, and forced himself to return to the magazine.

A soft thump had him looking at her again, now finding her rolling off the couch. He felt a familiar heat flow through him as he watched her straighten her top and smooth her hair back. The way she had been lying, with the soles of her feet planted against the wall, her hips pressed into the soft cushion of the couch and her head hanging over the edge of the couch, had made her face really flustered. That combined with her tousled hair had Max swallowing loudly.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

“Huh?” Max met her eyes, seeing the merriment there and immediately backtracked.

She just smiled sweetly and walked up to look over his shoulder. “Porn?”

“Funny.”

“Like you don’t have it under your bed.”

“Have you ever looked under my bed?”

“Of course.”

He frowned. “Why would you do that?”

“The best secrets are hidden under people’s beds.”

“Are they?”

He stared at her lips. She was so close.

Noticing where his eyes were directed, she inched even closer and slowly licked her lips. If he had been looking into her eyes, he would’ve seen the mischief in them.

His fingers itched to touch her. Just one time. Just to see if she was still as soft as he remembered.

“Max…” she breathed.

“Uh-huh,” he whispered back.

“I’m bored,” she said in the same tone of voice and then pulled back, a grin on her face.

He held back a groan, not wanting to give her the satisfaction. “Study.”

She laughed. “Is that your solution to boredom? Max, that sucks. You suck.”

“What do you mean you’re broke, anyway? You’re never broke.”

“None of your business,” Liz bit out.

Max huffed. “Er…okay.”

“Mom cut my allowance.”

Max’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”

Liz walked into the kitchen, but Max still had a full view of her from where he was sitting on the TV-table.

“She wants me to take responsibility for my life. I need to get a job. Need to earn my own money. Blah blah blah.”

She looked up just in time to see Max struggling to stop himself from laughing.

The attack was accompanied by a growl, causing them both to fall to the ground, Max’s body buffering the fall. Liz repeatedly hit Max’s chest with her balled fists, causing Max’s laughter to eventually come to an end.

thank you for the feedback. It keeps me writing even though I really should be studying Which is a good thing. Really. Maybe not for my grades, but for preventative reasons to stop me from going crazy

2. Strange comfort

Roswell High School
Thursday noon
(2003) Max is 18, Liz is 17

Liz stepped out into the sun and spotted Max sitting at his usual place by the large tree. Walking up behind him, she watched the shadow from her shape fall over his sunken body and stated tonelessly, “So…you’ve been avoiding me.”

Normally she couldn’t care less if he was around or not. Normally she actually preferred if he was very far away from her. But Michael had lent Max her CD player about a week earlier, much to Liz’s alarm when she was informed of this little trade, and he had yet to return it. She needed her music. She lived for her music.

And she was convinced that the reason Max was dodging her in the halls – everywhere really – was because he had either lost or broke her valuable CD player.

She stared at the back of his head, her eyes burrowing through his skull, trying to reach into his head to uncover whatever clues there might be to where he had hid her possession.

He didn’t reply.

Didn’t even acknowledge her presence.

Firmly planting her hands on her hips, she bit out, “Did you break it?”

“Leave me alone.”

His reply was low, spoken without a single movement on his part.

He was slowly, but surely, pissing her off. “What have you done with it? It’s not yours, you know.”

“Fuck off.”

She squeezed her lips together. “Don’t you speak to me like that.”

He sighed and said tiredly. “Just leave, Parker.”

Taking a firm grip on the strap of her backpack that was hanging off her shoulder, she walked around him to face him. He was staring into the ground. Nothing in his hands. Just sitting. And staring.

Liz frowned. There was something really odd about this picture. She mentally shrugged it off.

“I want my CD player. And I want it now.”

He didn’t answer and she was just about to start yelling when he looked up at her. Complete with glistening red eyes.

She choked on the words she had been planning to say.

“I really don’t care about your fucking CD player,” he said evenly and she swallowed.

Was he crying?

Why was he crying?

She had never seen him cry.

Never.

Except that time when his dog died. They had just been kids then. Max had cried. A lot.

Oh no…

Did someone die?

“What’s wrong?”

Her concerned soft voice had him dropping his eyes back to the ground.

“Nothing.”

She fell to her knees in front of him, not really sure why she did it before she found herself bending her head underneath his to force him to look at her.

“Max-“

He snapped his head away from hers, scooting backwards. “What the hell, Parker?”

She bit her bottom lip to stop herself from exploding on him. This was one of those times her mother just to refer to as ‘delicate’. Her mother had on several occasions informed Liz of her tendencies to speak before she thought about it. She was always trying to say how inappropriate it was to react to people by yelling at them and how ‘sometimes you have to swallow your anger’.

“What’s wrong with you?”

He pushed himself up along the tree, getting to his feet. “Take a hint. I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Believe me, I would rather not talk to you either, but I’m not gonna fucking leave you here if you’re…upset or something.”

Max continued to avoid her eyes as he picked up his backpack. “Whatever.”

She placed a hand on his elbow to stop him and jumped in surprise as he swirled around, looking at her with hot angry eyes. “Fuck, Parker! Go and annoy someone else for once!”

With that he turned and walked away with long fast strides, leaving Liz staring at his back with her mouth hanging open.

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The Parker’s Residence
Three weeks later
Wednesday Evening

“You’re not Mike.”

Liz jumped at the sound of his voice and then quickly composed herself to glance over at the window where Max was in the process of climbing over the window sill.

“Give the man a prize,” she grumbled under her breath as her eyes returned to her brother’s CD collection.

Where had he put her Lifehouse CD?

“Where is he?”

She squinted her eyes and moved closer to the CDs. She must’ve missed the CD somewhere. It had to be there.

She inhaled sharply as an arm curled around her waist. “Wh-“

“Where’s Mike, Lizzie?”

Not wasting a second, she spun out of his arms and glared at him. “What are you doing?”

He sighed, dropping his arms along the sides of his body. “I just want to know where Mike is.”

“He’s not here, okay.”

Her gaze fell onto something that was reflecting light on the nightstand and she quickly breezed past Max to snap up her Lifehouse CD from the wooden surface.

“Where is he?”

Her back facing him she rolled her eyes. “How should I know? I don’t really keep track of him.”

Not caring if he left or stayed, she walked out of the room, moving down the hallway and entered her room. She turned to close her door but stopped abruptly as Max appeared in her doorway.

“Eh…get out of my room,” she said in a voice that clearly stated that he should know by now that he was not welcome in her room.

“What are you up to?” he asked casually, stepping closer to her.

She automatically took a step back. “None of your business.”

Instead of responding with a smart comeback, which he would normally do, Max stilled and just looked at her. Liz met his gaze stubbornly. Whatever game he was playing he was not going to get the chance to even for a second think that he had won.

Because this had to be a game. It always was with Max Evans.

She swallowed deeply as he brought his fingers to her face, slowly sliding them down her cheek. “You’re quite pretty, Parker.”

She frowned and was just about to inform him of how much she didn’t appreciate whatever game he was playing when he continued, “When did you grow up?”

She scrunched her nose. “Have you gone completely mental on me?”

He took another step towards her and this time she didn’t move backwards. She would have if she had been able to, but at some point during the conversation, his arm had moved around her body.

This put them very close together.

His eyes remained fixed on her face and she could feel the heat rising up her cheeks from his undivided attention.

Her breath caught in her throat as she stilled beneath his touch. “Max?”

He pressed his thumb against her bottom lip, tracing its contours, his eyes following every movement of his fingers.

Her eyes slid closed against their own will and she unconsciously leaned into him. The memory of him kissing her in ninth grade invaded her thoughts and the sudden urge to have him kiss her again flooded her senses.

As if reading her mind, Max murmured, “You tasted so sweet.”

Without opening her eyes, she whispered, “Please…”, not being completely sure what she was asking him for.

“Miss Liz? Are you up there?”

Liz ripped away from his hold at the voice of the housekeeper drifting up the stairs. Standing two feet away, she stared at him with heaving chest and racing heart.

He stared back.

“Miss Liz?”

She swallowed and answered without letting him out of her sight, “I’m here, Gabriela.”

She shivered as his hand curled around the back of her neck and whispered, “What are you doing?” before softly gasping as his soft wet lips touched the side of her neck.

She knew that she was supposed to pull away. She didn’t know what was going on. She was supposed to ask him for an explanation, not let him attack her.

His lips slowly moved down her neck, partly dragging, partly kissing, partly sucking. But as his hand moved to push away the neck of her sweater and the underlying bra strap, she pulled away from him.

“Evans, what are you doing?”

Something flashed in his eyes and he straightened his back, a coldness drifting across his face. “Fuck Parker. Just try and enjoy it for once.”

Her heart rate sped up, now for a completely different reason. Her cheeks flustered to another nuance, feeling the heat of anger crawling into her vessels. “Enjoy it? You come in here and practically attack me. And you ask me to enjoy it?”

“What’s the problem, Lizzie?” he asked casually. “I thought you wanted this. The way you’ve been following me around these last weeks… You shouldn’t lead a guy on if you can’t follow it through, Parker.”

Liz stared at him in disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about?! I haven’t been following you around. You’re completely delusional.”

She startled as he grabbed her arm, a wild look in his eyes. “It’s dangerous to be a tease.”

She tried to pull out of his grip but he held firmly. Meeting his eyes with a firm warning of her own, she bit out, “Let go of me.”

He was acting different. Sure, they were always in a feud with each other, but he was never physical with her. He never scared her. He was always overbearingly overprotective of her.

“You should’ve just let it go, Lizzie.”

“Let what go?” she asked through her teeth.

“But you kept prodding. And prodding. And prodding.”

There was something in his eyes that told her to be careful. But on some instinctive level she also knew he wouldn’t hurt her. She pulled hard on her arm to get away from him, which only resulted in him pushing her up against the wall.

Her elbow hit the wall. “Ow. Max!”

Their breaths intermingled in the darkness of her room, both agitated for their own reasons. Then his lips crashed down on hers.

There was nothing gentle about the kiss. It was hot and demanding, just like his hands as they fisted her hair to pull her even closer – if possible.

She whimpered under his assault, her body falling into his.

And she tasted the alcohol he had been drinking.

And things started to make more sense.

Until the energy of his kiss simmered down and a restrained sob sifted through the air. She frowned. Her lips stilled and ceased to meet the movements of his kisses.

“Max?” she whispered against his lips.

He was soft now. Gentle. Tender. His fists had lost their ferocity and were languidly sliding down her face, tracing the angle of her jaw.

But he wouldn’t stop. A hollow desperation remained in his touches and she slowly started to move with him again. Kissed him back. Caressed his lips just as he was caressing hers. But as her thumbs drifted along his cheeks and stroke the tears away, he pulled away from her.

Before she could see his face, he had turned his back on her.

She stood there staring at his back, tasting the saltiness of his tears on her lips as she tried to figure out what to do.

“What happened?” she asked her brother’s best friend.

She could see the shake run through his body, but there was no sound. No answer. No sign that he had even heard her.

“Ma-“

She jumped as he hit his fist into the desk. “Fuck!”

And she started thinking of where her cell phone was. Because this might be over her head. She had never met this emotional Max before. She might have to call Michael.

Just as she was about to reach for her phone on the bed, his soft voice broke through the silence. “She told me three weeks ago.”

She swallowed. Okay. It appeared to be sharing time. “Who?”

“Mom.”

She took a deep breath.

This was going to be bad. This was going to be bad. She just knew it. What else would have gotten the always so calm and collected Max Evans so completely out of control?

“What did she tell you?”

“Cancer. The doctors called it a glioblastoma multiforme. Brain tumour.”

Liz’s breath hitched and a tear slid down her cheek.

No.

Please don’t.

“Apparently,” his voice cracked, “it’s very bad.”

“Max,” Liz whispered.

He turned around to face her. His eyes red and wet, with glistening cheeks. He bit the inside of his cheek, trying to keep his voice steady. “It’s very very bad.”

She was crying now as well as she stepped up to him and put her arms around him. His arms were tight around her body, his tears warm and wet against the side of her neck. “She’s dead, Lizzie. She died.”

Her hold on him tightened, feeling his anguish as if it was her own.

“I’m sorry,” he sobbed. “I’m sorry for what I did to you. I didn’t mean… I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

She shushed him, threading comforting hands through his hair. “Don’t. Just don’t. I’m so sorry, Max. I’m so sorry about your mom.”

“Hey man.”

Max and Liz slowly pulled apart and looked at Michael standing in the doorway, wearing a sad face.

“I just heard.”

Max wiped his face of the tears, not meeting Liz’s eyes.

“You want to go for a drink?”

Liz was just about to say that he could stay here, when Max beat her to it. “Yeah.”

Liz blinked away the tears hanging off her eyelashes and looked up at Max. But he was not looking at her.

Without another word, Max left the room, leaving Michael and Liz alone. “Thanks for that, sis. I didn’t know he would come here. Then I would’ve been home.”

“He thought you were here,” Liz said.

Michael frowned. “That’s odd. He knew that I was working tonight.”

“Oh…” Liz straightened. It didn’t mean anything. It was not like Max had come to see her. He was drunk already. He probably just got his facts mixed up. “Um…he must’ve forgotten. He was a bit drunk when he got here.”

Michael grimaced, imaging all the fights Max very likely had picked with his little sister before he showed up. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

Michael gave her an odd look. “It actually sounds like you care, sis.”

He couldn’t have hurt her more if he had slapped her. “His mother just died, Mike. What kind of heartless bitch do you think I am?”

He walked up to her and pulled her protesting body into his arms. “Hey hey. Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I was just a bit surprised to see you comforting him, that’s all.”

“I might not like him, but I do care for him,” Liz said against his shirt.

Yes, that sounded weird even to her ears, but it was the only way she could explain it. Max Evans had the power to make her want to hurt him, but she would fight to her last breath to stop anyone else from hurting him.

It's in the middle of the night in my part of the world. I just came home from the bus terminal after having spent six hours on a bus. But instead of going straight to bed after that shower I had I decided to turn on the computer. Because I've been in the middle of nowhere for six days without internet. It was traumatizing. It really was. So I just had to check my emails and I really wanted to give you an update.

So here I am.

With a loooong update.

First of all, thank you Elizabeth for letting everyone know what was going on

And to all of you beautiful readers that take the time to leave me a few words;

- and Elizabeth, I could've needed your dad to get internet He seems like a handy guy to have around

3. Playing with Playboys

The Apartment
Thursday night
(2007) Max is 22, Liz is 21

You should ask Max for his VIP-card

That’s what Maria had told her. As if it would be the easiest thing in the world. As if it would just be a matter of walking up to Max and politely ask him if she could borrow his VIP-card.

Sometimes she wondered what Maria was on.

No way was she asking Max for his card. She knew exactly what would happen if she did. He would cross-examine her until he knew exactly what she needed it for and when he would find out that she needed it to get close and personal to Brad Matthews he wasn’t going to let her borrow the card anyway.

Because what Maria never really got was that there was something about Max and whatever boy Liz was interested in. Just the mention of the male sex had Max turn into this impossible overprotective character, even worse than her brother.

No. No way was she asking Max for his card.

But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t get the card. Because Elizabeth Parker had a plan. Yes, siree.

And the plan had seemed flawless until she found herself standing over the sleeping body of Max Evans. Her eyes slowly traveled over the well-defined muscles of his naked back, down the tanned arm that was hanging over the edge of the couch. Her breath hitched as her eyes fell on his large hands and memories of what those hands were capable of entered her mind.

Taking a deep breath, her eyes fell on his face, on how his head was half-way over the edge of the couch, his mouth slightly opened and the unstoppable thought that he was even sexy when asleep crept into her mind.

Frustrated with herself, she angrily shook her head and started to look around for Max’s discarded jeans. They were thrown over the TV-table and she quietly made her way over, carefully picking them up. Quickly glancing over at Max to check his level of consciousness, she started going through his pockets in the search of his wallet. It was not really tricky to find.

With a smile of triumph she pulled it out and began to go through it in search of the card. Her smile grew as she fished out the desired card and was just about to put the wallet back into the pocket when fingers grabbed around her underarm.

She jumped in fright and snapped her head towards Max to find him completely awake and staring at her.

“Max,” she breathed, moving the hand that was still holding the card behind her back, discreetly pushing the card into her back pocket.

“What are you doing, Liz?” Max asked calmly, the huskiness of sleep making his voice sound dangerously intimate. There was darkness in his eyes that made a shiver run through her.

“I…uhm…” she desperately licked her lips, being thrown off by being in such close proximity to him. His fingers around her skin were burning. “I saw a…cockroach.”

Max arched an eyebrow. “You saw a cockroach?”

Liz nodded slowly. “Uh-huh. And it ran into your clothes.”

The corner of Max’s mouth twitched with amusement. “Aaand…?”

“I wanted to get it out, so you wouldn’t get an unpleasant surprise in the morning.”

Max looked at her intently, making her feel like she wanted to fidget. She took a deep breath and straightened her back. Max was not going to get the truth out of her by just staring at her. Just because he was more or less naked under that blanket and was no more than three inches away from her, didn’t mean that she wouldn’t be able to use her normal tactics to get out of this.

“I thought you hated cockroaches,” Max stated.

“I do,” Liz said simply, wondering what his point was.

“You usually run in the opposite direction. You don’t go after them.”

Liz felt her face grew hot as a smug spread across his face. He knew. He knew that she was lying.

She narrowed her eyes. “What are you saying? That I’m lying?”

He shrugged causally, his smug turning into a knowing smile. One of those slow smiles that seemed to caress his face. “Just seems a bit odd, kitten. You’re not even holding any bug spray in your hand. What were you planning to do once you found the cockroach?”

“Chase it away,” Liz said firmly. “Geez, Max. Is this the gratitude I get for trying to help you out?”

“You want gratitude?”

Liz raised her chin defiantly. “That would be nice.”

In one smooth movement, Max took a hold of her waist and pulled her into his lap, her thighs falling down on each side of his body.

She stared at him in shock. Her body was desperately trying to remember how to breathe while her mind was busy trying to think of something to say.

She felt his hands on her bottom and gasped as he applied pressure and pushed her lower body up against his. She stared at him, her mouth having gone dry as his hand entwined one of the dark strands of her hair between his fingers, his eyes firmly locked with hers.

“What are you doing?” Liz whispered, her voice sounding foreign to her.

He let go off her hair and slowly feathered a finger down her flustered cheek. “I’m showing my gratitude.”

“Huh?” she partly whispered, partly moaned.

The grin on his face told her that he had heard it. “Are you okay? You look a bit…” he traced his index finger across her upper lip. “…warm.”

“I’m serious,” she got out. “There was a cockroach.”

Max leaned in, his breath softly caressing her ear as he whispered, “Sweetheart, you never were any good at lying.”

Her eyes fluttered closed with a restrained sigh and she unconsciously arched into him as his hands moved down across her shoulder blades and downwards, his large hands molding over her ass.

Then he suddenly pulled away. Liz blinked.

“Did you find the cockroach?” Max asked, his face calm and collected.

She nodded and swallowed. “It ran away just before you woke up.”

“Aha,” he nodded. He took a deep breath. “Okay, well…” Taking a hold of her waist he easily lifted her off his lap and sat her down on her feet next to the couch. “Then I’m just gonna go back to sleep.”

Liz stared at him. She knew that he knew she was lying. Was he just going to let her go?

“Uhm…”

He smiled lazily. “Or did you want to join me?”

She blinked. “What?” Her mind felt oddly muffled.

He patted the space next to him with a suggestive raise of his eyebrow.

It was the smirk on his face that kicked her back into character. She straightened with a huff. “In your dreams, Evans.”

She started to walk away, saying over her shoulder. “And just so you know. This is the last time I’ll ever try to help you again.”

He didn’t reply, but for some reason she was one hundred percent certain that the smirk was still on his face. She shrugged it off and quickly made her way down the corridor to her bedroom. As soon as the door closed behind her, she put her hand into her back pocket to retrieve the card.

Only to find it empty.

She frowned and put her hand in the other back pocket, in case she had mistaken. But that one was empty as well.

Anger began to build inside of her as she realized that Evans had played her the whole time. That last part, him pulling her close and touching her and all of that crap, had all been an act to pull the card out of her pocket. He had known the whole time.

She balled her fists up and started to take deep breaths. It was really not a good idea to run out there and yell at him. That would declare him the winner.

With more force than needed, she ripped the sheet away from the bed. She hated him. She hated him so much. But he couldn’t stop her. She would do anything to get close to Brad Matthews. If Evans thought she was going to give up this easily, he didn’t really know her at all.

-----------------------------------------

The Crash
Saturday evening; two days later

Her heels made sharp sounds against the pavement as she walked up towards the night-club, her red-painted nails flashing in the air as her hand-sized purse moved back and forth with her steady movement. Even before she reached her destination, she had managed to turn a couple of heads, something that she was very well aware of and satisfied her to no end. If Brad Matthews is able to resist her tonight, he should seriously re-consider his male status.

The bouncer nodded to her at the door. “Miss Parker.”

She gave him a glittering smile. “Joe.”

“You’re looking stunning tonight,” he said, giving her a toothed smile. One of few.

She brushed away some tendrils of hair that fluttered across her face in the soft breeze. “Thank you.”

“Are you here for Brad?”

She smirked. “Who else.”

He shook his head at the determination in her eyes. It wouldn’t surprise him if she got exactly what she wanted tonight. She was dressed for it. “Have a good night, Miss Parker.”

She smiled again and with a “thanks” she stepped into the semi-dark club, the heat from the already dancing bodies enveloping her like a tight glove. The music was as loud as ever, but there was definitely more people than ever there that night. She had to elbow her way through the crowd to get to the bar.

She smiled happily at the bartender. “A bloody Mary.”

He raised his eyebrow at her. “You’re drinking tonight, Lizzie?”

“Remember, it’s your job to serve me. I’m not under age and I’m not drunk. I’m a paying customer so…”

Michael shrugged. “Whatever.”

Liz turned her back to her disapproving brother and scanned the crowd.

“On the prowl?”

She rolled her eyes at the voice before turning around. Feigning surprise, she exclaimed. “Max!”

She had a whole sentence on the tip of her tongue but it vanished as she took in his appearance. He looked absolutely…yummy. Dark green shirt with the two top buttons unbuttoned and a black jacket covering it, giving him a very causal – but sexy - appearance.

He smiled at her, which made her stomach feel all funny. “Didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Really? Why?”

“Well…” he said slowly, as if tasting the words. “I thought the…umm… misadventure last night would’ve discouraged you from coming.”

Liz licked her lips, feeling her face heating up from a whole different reason than just a second ago. Taking a step closer to him, so that their nose tips were almost touching, she placed a hand on his hip, moving up under his shirt. Catching his eyes and with fascination watching his eyes darken, she said, “I have other ways of getting what I want.”

She pushed her foot backwards to step away, but Max’s hand on top of hers stopped her. He pulled her hand out from underneath his shirt and brought her hand up to his mouth. She could feel her heart beat hard in her chest as her eyes watched his lips brush against her knuckles and she felt the texture of his warm and soft lips against her skin.

“You look beautiful,” he said in a voice so soft it should have gotten lost in the sound level of the club. But for some reason Liz didn’t miss one word.

Something felt warm in her stomach and she nervously licked her lips. Taking a deep breath she pulled her hand out of his grip. “Thank you.”

He looked at her for another couple of seconds before he straightened up, his whole demeanor changing in front of her eyes. “So…you’re here to see Brad, huh?”

Liz shrugged. “See, dance, whatever he wants…”

Something flashed in Max’s eyes, before he grinned at her. “Ah, so you’re planning to get a bit personal with him?”

She winked at him as answer. He seemed to ponder this for a second, before he leaned in towards her. She resisted the urge to lean back from him and remained completely still. His lips brushed against the side of her cheek, just in front of her ear, sending electricity down her body.

“Too bad you don’t have VIP-access,” he whispered.

She turned into him, placing a feathery kiss on his cheek. “That won’t stop me.”

Pulling away, she couldn’t help but smile at the look in his eyes. Boys were so predictable. With just a few simple words she had him thinking just what she wanted him to think.

But as he continued to look at her, his eyes trapping hers, she started to waver in her conviction. The air around her seemed to heat up and somehow the simple task of taking the next breath seemed to have turned difficult.

“Why are you doing this?”

She swallowed. Her mouth felt dry. Her voice wavered and cracked slightly as she spoke. “What do you mean?”

She sighed as his finger caressed the side of her cheek ever so tenderly. “Just be careful.”

She swallowed again and tried to muster up a strong smile. It was difficult, with him looking at her all serious and concerned. “I learned my lesson.”

She was referring to another time, another place, but he knew exactly what she meant. And she somehow suspected that might be why he was worried all of the sudden. Because of what happened that last time.

“Hey Max-“ the couple broke apart and Liz looked up at Max’s boss as he came around the corner. Seeing Liz, he smiled. “Oh, hi Liz.”

“Hi,” she greeted.

“Looking fantastic tonight,” the tall strongly built man said appreciatively.

Liz smiled. “Thank you.”

As Tom turned his attention back to his employee, Liz scanned the inside of the club. If possible, the bar had filled up even more since she walked in. It was going to be a big night.

-------------------------------------------------

Five hours later

“Oh fuck.”

Brad stilled on top of her for a couple of seconds before rolling off her, his breathing heavy and his body sweaty.

Liz closed her eyes, closing in the tears that were stinging her eyes. Why wasn’t she happy? She had gotten just what she wanted. She had wanted Brad Matthews. She had wanted him to notice her. And he had.

He had spotted her in the crowd, dancing to his music. He had smiled at her as she had walked up to him in the break between two of his sessions. He had kissed her hand, much the same way as Max had done just two hours earlier, when she had praised his music.

As she had leaned into him and kissed his cheek after he had given her an autograph, he had whispered into her ear to meet him backstage in twenty minutes.

So she had. And one thing had lead to another.

Now all she could think about was Max. As her own sweat dried on her skin and her tears ran slowly down her face, with a practical stranger falling asleep next to her in a hotel bed, she wanted Max to be there. She wanted Max to be the one sleeping next to her. She wanted him to be whispering sweet nothings in her ear. She wanted his hands to caress every inch of her naked body.

Soft snores filled the room and she looked over at the man that had his face half-turned into the white pillow and tried to swallow back the nausea.

She felt dirty.

She had enjoyed it at first. Had enjoyed having the complete attention of a male. Enjoyed knowing that he was interested in her, without having to try to figure out underlying meanings. Without having to put a friendship at risk.

No strings attached.

But with each piece of clothing removed, she lost a piece of herself. She had shivered as he had touched her naked skin. He had probably taken it for desire. To her it had been coldness. She had squeezed her eyes together as he had thrust into her, her nails digging into his back with the desperation of wanting to get away.

He hadn’t forced her. But she hadn’t been willing either. She just hadn’t informed him of her doubts.

On weak legs she got up from the bed and quietly pulled her clothes back on. Without a look back, she left the hotel room.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Twenty minutes later

She opened the bathroom door, not realizing that the light was shining out from underneath the door which should’ve told her that it was occupied, and came face to face with Max.

He blinked at her slowly and it only took two blinks to tell her that Max was not completely sober.

“Lizzie,” he said with a big grin. “You’re up late.”

Avoiding his eyes, she started to back out. “Sorry. I didn’t know anyone was in here.”

“S’ okay,” he said brightly. “We can share.”

“You’re drunk,” she said, stating the obvious.

She could feel his eyes on her as she stubbornly stared at a spot on the tiled floor. “Nah… Well…maybe just a little bit.”

Feeling the sudden urge to smile, she bit her bottom lip and instead shook her head, while fixing her gaze on something just behind Max’s head. Looking at him, but still not.

His hands grabbed her arms and before she could blink he had pulled her back into the bathroom. “C’ mere.”

“I-I need to shower.”

He smiled. “Go ahead.”

She made eye-contact long enough to glare at him. “Without you in the room.”

“Come on…” he pouted. “I won’t look.”

She couldn’t believe she was actually considering it, but looking at Max’s rather uncoordinated ways of putting toothpaste on his tooth brush and really really needing that shower right now, she didn’t see much of a choice.

“Can’t you brush your teeth in the kitchen?”

He met her eyes in the mirror above the sink as he started brushing his teeth.

“I whoas here farst,” he announced around a mouthful of toothpaste.

“Max…” she whispered, looking longingly at the shower.

She could still smell him on her. She shivered.

“Ow was you nite?” Max continued. “Any suschess wid Batt?”

Liz sighed. She really didn’t need this right now. Turning her back to him and pretending to be busy with putting her hair up, she squeezed her eyes tightly together.

Don’t cry.

She balled up her fists to fight for some control and heard him gurgle behind her. Then two strong warm arms encircled her waist from behind. Lips pressed against the top of her head and she bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood.

Don’t cry.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

How could he be drunk and still notice that something was wrong?

“I just…need a shower,” she forced out between aching lips.

His arms tightened around her and a tear ran down her cheek. “Long night, huh?

Her voice trembled slightly as she answered. “The longest.”

“Poor thing,” he whispered against her hair and she basked in the soft breathy nuance of his voice.

Then his arms were gone and coldness enveloped her. “I’m going to bed.”

She nodded, turning only half-way to see him walk out the door. “Okay.”

She locked the door behind him and slowly peeled the clothes off her body, tears running silently down her cheeks. As she stepped into the water in the shower, her sobs were drowned in the sound of the constant flush of the water.

Feeling empty, she dried her body with an oversized towel before wrapping it tightly around her and stepping out into the dark corridor to walk the five feet to her room.

It was not until she had pulled on some cotton shorts and a top, and went to crawl down into her bed that she noticed that the bed was not empty.

She sniffled with gratitude as she looked at him, his mouth slightly open and snoring softly, and for once she thanked the gods for Max’s inability to walk to the right bed when he was drunk.

She crawled down beside him, torn between moving close to him or remaining on her side of the bed. He made the choice for her as he put an arm around her and pulled her against his body.

“Hey baby,” he whispered, half-asleep. “What are you doing here?”

She smiled, pushing some strands of hair off his forehead. “You’re in my bed, silly.”

Without opening his eyes, he returned her smile, “Oh. Okay,” and placed a leg across one of her legs, trapping her next to him.

But she didn’t have a problem with that. None at all.

“Do you want me to kick his ass?”

She looked up to see his eyes observing her seriously. She swallowed and tried to smile. “No.”

She let her eyes wander across his face, her heart aching for some reason she wasn’t quite clear about yet. When he didn’t say anything, she buried her face into shirt, breathing in his familiar smell.

“Did he hurt you?”

“Why do you assume that it’s a guy?” she asked into his shirt.

His hand slowly caressed her arm, causing shivers to run through her body. Shivers of the kind that she had been trying to get with Brad earlier.

“Because only boys will upset you like this.”

“I’m not upset.”

“Okay.”

She looked up at him, finding him still looking at her. “Why can’t you be a normal unobservant drunk like the rest of us?”

She wanted to hide tonight. She wanted to find solace in his arms, bury herself in his warmth, no questions asked.

“Alcohol can’t stop me from seeing you.”

Her heart clenched and her eyes stung. Why did he have to say things like that? Looking up at him, she only acted on impulse as she reached up and softly touched his lips with hers.

His lips were warm and inviting, tasting like him and alcohol. She pulled away before she was ready to do so.

He looked at her carefully, his gaze appearing to be clearer, more like the sober Max she loved to hate. “Liz…?”

“Thank you,” she whispered, her eyes silently pleading him to not push it.

He regarded her silently before pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Get some sleep.”

She nodded and curled up against him. Sleep came easier than she had thought that night.

Because it was requested, I'm gonna post this chapter slightly earlier than I had scheduled.

Thank you all SO MUCH for the beautiful comments. I would probably write anyway, but your words make me write so much more often and faster. So don't think for a second that you're not making a difference. You are.

pookie76dreamer19

dreamer19 wrote:I wish I could say I felt sorry for Liz, but I really don't. I think she's a stubborn, spoiled brat.

Hmm... interesting. Well, yeah, that's kinda what she is. But I have to slightly defend her. She's not all what she appears to be. There is more to Liz Parker than that abrasive cool exterior

guel wrote: I love both of them together and have a feeling that they maybe were together but then stopped it cause they were risking their friendship...or maybe they had sex in the past but played it down and had a misunderstanding.

jake17
Emma
RiceKrispy
kay_b
Karen
Natalie36
Eve
Laira
Rachael - thank you for coming out of lurkdom. You should do it more often; you have a lot of wise and understanding comments. Let me just comment on your comment about Maria. Maria is kinda in this story, I'm just not sure how much of her I'm gonna write in. It depends on Max and Liz... Oh, and did you know? I absolutely adore long feedbacks.Rebecca - good to see you! And thanks for the lengthy comments carolina_moon

Do you remember this?

She sighed as his finger caressed the side of her cheek ever so tenderly. “Just be careful.”

She swallowed again and tried to muster up a strong smile. It was difficult, with him looking at her all serious and concerned. “I learned my lesson.”

She was referring to another time, another place, but he knew exactly what she meant. And she somehow suspected that might be why he was worried all of the sudden. Because of what happened that last time.

He watched her walk away, his fists clenching at the sides of his body. She was being more annoying than normal.

The party continued around them and Max caught up with some of his friends. By midnight, the party had taken a turn. Voices and laughter had gotten louder. People were sleeping in the beach chairs next to the pool. Some girls were swimming topless in the water, with some very attentive guys at their beck and call. Some people were throwing up in the bushes and some were in lip-lock, slowly moving to music they didn’t really hear.

Max had been keeping an eye on Liz on and off since their first encounter, but towards the end of the night, he had lost track of her. It had been about an hour since he had seen her last and he was starting to worry. He wanted to brush it off. He wasn’t her keeper. If she thought she was old enough to take care of herself, let her. He wasn’t going to stand in her way.

But he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that she was getting into trouble right that second. And speaking of Liz…

“Dude, did you see Parker? That’s one fine piece of-“

The guy was interrupted by a hand taking a firm hold on his collar and pulling him into the side of a hard body.

“Hey-“ the guy tried to object, but Max’s hard voice interrupted him.

“Where is she?”

The guy’s face brightened, happy that he would be the one to deliver what he knew. “Oh, man. She’s asking for it-“

Max tightened his hold on the guy’s collar and growled, “Where is she?”

The guy’s face fell. “Dude. Chill.” He hitched his chin into the direction of the pool area. “She’s over there, in the hot tub.”

Max let him go so quickly that the guy stumbled backwards into the house wall. Muttering under his breath, the guy walked off to more fun adventures while Max stormed off into the direction of the hot tub.

He didn’t recognize her at first. Her face was bent to the side, her lips being devoured by the lips of the guy sitting next to her. As far as he could tell, she had been wearing a bikini, but the top was gone and only the humble foam from the hot tub was providing some sort of privacy. The guy getting lucky next to her did not grant her the same privacy. From what Max could tell, one hand was most likely covering one of her breasts and the other was not visible, but Max had a fair idea of where it was which only made him quicken his steps.

“I suggest you let go of her right now.”

The other people occupying the pool looked up in surprise as Max appeared next to the tub, surprised at the barely contained anger they could hear in his voice. Max Evans was far from a calm person, but he always managed to present himself with a coolness that was bordering on admirable.

No one except Michael and Liz had really seen him lose his temper.

The guy kissing his friend’s little sister hadn’t heard him though. The guy sitting next him, took one look at Max’s dark eyes and elbowed his friend in the side. “Dude.”

The guy pulled away from Liz’s lips and gave his friend an irritated look. “What?”

His friend hitched his head into Max’s direction, causing Liz’s pursuer to come face to face with Max’s stoic face.

“Let her go,” Max said as he met the guy’s eyes. His voice was dangerously cold.

The guy, a little bit too intoxicated for his own good, looked over at the girl he had been making out with for the last twenty minutes. Her eyes were closed, her body leaning into his. He smirked at the sight. She sure was something.

“She’s fine, isn’t she?” he said. He looked up at Max, a smug on his face. “But that shouldn’t be a secret to you, Evans.”

“Take your hands off her,” Max said slowly, his face cold.

The guy, whose name Max would later learn to be Zach Davids, pulled Liz closer watching Max’s face closely with a grin as he was doing so. “Not into sharing, Evans?”

You know when you fill up a glass with water; if you go one drop too much, it will swim over. But not just that drop will swim over, a lot will go over the edge. Zach placing his hand back over Liz’s breast was that drop too much for Max.

The people in the tub that night learnt that Max Evans doesn’t really explode. He implodes. Instead of yelling and punching the guy, he calmly walks up to the tub and leans down close to Zach’s face. The inverted explosion was evident in the dark shimmering of Max’s eyes as they stare into Zach’s.

“If you don’t let go off her right now, I will personally see to it that your life becomes a living hell. I will let every girl at school know just exactly how you treat women. I will let your parents know how you spend your time outside of their home. Just give me the chance and I will see to it that you will never get laid ever again, that you will be suspended from school and will at most be getting a job at the cheese factory.”

Max pulled back slightly, taking a hold of Liz’s upper arm and pulling her away from Zach’s body, his eyes never living Zach’s widened ones. “If you ever even look at her again,” there was no question of whom he was referring to, “believe me, I’ll know.”

Keeping one hand around Liz’s arm to stop her from slipping under the water, he pulled his T-shirt over his head, much to the surrounding girls’ appreciation.

With a tenderness that was quite opposite the venom that had just been directed at Zach, Max positioned Liz’s body slightly more upright so that he could slip his T-shirt over her head. He didn’t care to put her arms through the sleeves, he just wanted her covered up as quickly as possible.

Turning back to Zach, he asked slowly, “Is that clear?”

Zach nodded dumbly.

Max tightened his lips together, the anger boiling inside of him screaming to get out. But he wasn’t going to lose it. The need to beat this guy into a bloody pulp was close to suffocating him, but his worry for Liz was taking priority. Her slack body was worrying him. She had either drunk herself into a stupor or she had been given something that wasn’t quite alcohol. Date rape drugs were well-known on these college parties.

He pulled her slightly up from the tub, ensuring that her bikini bottoms were still on and whispered into her ear. “Kitten.”

She sighed, her eyes opening slightly. A slow smile spread across her face and she tried to raise a hand, but found it trapped inside Max’s large T-shirt. “Max…”

But her eyes were closed again, her head feeling heavy against his chest.

He took a firm grip around her shoulders and pulled her up from the pool, the water running off her. The T-shirt he had dressed her in only a few minutes earlier was soaked, plastering rather indiscreetly to her front.

Placing one arm in the bend of her knees and the other one across her back, he hauled her up against his chest.

“What did she have?” he asked the occupants of the pool, feeling the water from Liz soak into the top of his jeans and wet his bare chest.

“Uh…” some guy murmured uncommitted.

“She’s almost unconscious,” Max said between gritted teeth. “What did you give her?”

“Nothing, man,” another guy piped up. “She was like that when she got here.”

Max clenched his teeth. “Now you listen to me. You’re fucking gonna tell me exactly what she had or-“

A girl interrupted him. He recognized her from high school as one of the girls that used to run after him. Pam Troy. “She was doing jello shots.”

“Just jello shots?” Max asked. Liz was dead weight in his arms and he was worried that she might’ve been slipped a drug.

“Lighten up man,” the same guy as previously said. “She’s just wasted.”

Afraid that he might not keep that control on his feelings much longer, Max left without a word.

They had to stop on the way home for her to throw up. After that she started to become slightly more coherent.

“I’m cold,” she mumbled into the seat she had her cheek pressed into.

He had found a blanket in the car which he had handed to her earlier but the T-shirt she was wearing was still slightly damp.

“Maybe you should remove the T-shirt-“

“Yeah right,” she said weakly and Max rolled his eyes. Even half-conscious she was being stubborn.

“Lizzie. The wet shirt is keeping you cold. You have the blanket. It’s not like you’d be naked.”

And it’s a little late to be modest with probably half the people at that party having seen you half-naked, Max added silently in his head.

“I’m cold,” she repeated, looking like she wanted to melt into the car seat if that was able to give her any heat. “Where are we?”

“Five minutes from home.”

Silence enveloped them for a while. He kept watching her out of the corner of his eye, getting increasingly irritated at the fact that she was shivering but was still not making any attempts at removing the wet T-shirt.

“Look. Whatever’s underneath that shirt, I’ve seen it. Now, just take it off before you catch pneumonia.”

He could feel her stare at the side of his face. “What do you mean, you’ve seen it?”

His grip tightened around the steering wheel. “It was not like you were hiding anything when I found you.”

If he had been looking straight at her, he would’ve noticed her face growing pale. Her voice gained some strength as she repeated. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Max, what did I do?”

“You acted like the irresponsible brat I knew you were gonna act like.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. Every emotion that had ripped through him as he had been staring down the people just observing her getting assaulted in the hot tub had culminated and had just been waiting to get out. That time was now.

He was met with silence.

“I didn’t see you all night and when I did, I got to see some guy feeling you up while you were just sitting there!”

Maybe that was the core of the problem. He had always admired Liz for her feistiness, for her ability to stand her ground. It was one of the things he liked about her. To see her reduced to what every second girl in high school would do was a disappointment.

“What was I doing?” Her voice was soft, her face turned away from him, gazing unseeingly out the window.

“Apparently checking his tonsils with your tongue.”

“I don’t remember…”

“How many shots did you have, Elizabeth?”

Liz bit her lips tightly together, wanting to prevent the tears from falling down her cheeks. She felt awful. The fact that she still wanted to throw up and she felt dirty and cold wasn’t the main thing. No, it was the disappointment and disgust in Max’s voice that was making her feel the worst.

“I can’t remember.”

“How could you be so stupid-“

“Get off my fucking case, okay!” she exploded, tears spilling over and running down her face. She stared wildly at his profile, her whole body tight with hurt.

“No I won’t!” Max yelled back, the car swerving slightly. “You could’ve gotten hurt! What if someone had raped you?! Do you have any idea what could’ve-“

“Don’t you think I know that,” Liz cried. “For once I just wanted to do something that little Liz Parker wouldn’t do. I wanted to do what everyone else was doing-“

“What? Getting drunk and screwing someone?”

“You’ve done it,” she bit out.

He took one sideway look at her, before slamming the breaks, causing the car to swerve to the side of the road. Liz barely had time to react before Max was out of the car and had ripped open the passenger door.

“What are you doing?” she asked, trying to hold onto the strength in her voice, but something in Max’s eyes was frightening her.

He reached across her, unfastened her seat belt and grabbed a hold of her so that he could turn her to face him.

“Yes, I’ve screwed around. A lot.”

That something in his eyes, that wilderness, stopped her from interrupting him.

“But I would never have sex with a drunk girl. I might be drunk at the time, but if she wasn’t coherent enough to know what was going on, I was not interested.” He pushed the blanket down her shoulders, revealing the semi-dry T-shirt that had dried in a cascade of wrinkles. “That guy at the party. He was ready to fuck you right there. In front of everyone. He didn’t care that you were barely there. He didn’t care that there were other people there. He didn’t have any respect for you at all. When you’re that drunk, Lizzie, guys will do anything to you. Especially to you.”

He took a hold of the bottom of the T-shirt and pulled it upwards. She stared at him with wide, glistening eyes as she folded her arms across her chest to shield herself from his eyes.

“Do you know what they used to say about you at school? You were like this fucking trophy. Whoever could nail you…” he grimaced, remembering the numerous occasions he had walked into the middle of X-rated conversations about Michael’s little sister in the guy’s locker room. “That’s because you would never give it up to just anyone.”

He blinked and seemed to see her for the first time since the start of his rant. Tears were silently rolling down her cheeks, the skin of her upper arms where her fingers were grabbing to provide a shield over her naked breasts was white with the force, and her whole body was trembling.

His chest was heaving with the anger that was quickly dying down. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down and then cradled her cheek in his hand. His voice was softer as he added, “At least that’s what I thought, before today. Maybe I just don’t know you as well as I thought.”

She started crying in earnest at his last words, but instead of trying to find solace in his arms, she pushed him away from her. She reached behind her, feeling Max’s heated eyes on her the whole time, and pulled the blanket up over her back and across her shoulders; wrapping it around herself.

She brushed the tears away from her face and spoke with grave seriousness. “Thank you, Max. I’m really…” she swallowed, finding it hard to get over her pride, “…glad that you were there tonight.” Taking a deep breath, she looked him straight in the eye. “But I don’t need a lecture. I wanted to have fun-“

He snorted. “You call this fun?”

Ignoring him, she continued calmly, “-and now I’ve tried that. It’s not your place to tell me what to do and how to do it. I want you to stop trying to control my life. I’m not that little six-year-old that used to run to you for a Band-Aid when I scraped my knees. I need to make my own mistakes.”

“You sure have a backwards way of doing it,” Max grumbled.

“Just take me home.”

He stared at her for a second or two, before straightening his back and walking back to his side of the car. As he turned the key, Liz added, “And don’t tell Michael about this.”

He gave a sarcastic huff, shaking his head in disbelief. “Oh, don’t worry. I think Pam Troy is going to let everyone of importance know just what happened.”

He didn’t have to look at her to see her eyes widen. “Pam Troy?”

“It’s always fun to have fun, kitten. But then you’ll have to deal with the consequences.”

Liz tightened the blanket around her and slid down in her seat with a frown on her face.

“The secret, sweetheart, is to not get caught.”

She turned just in time to see him wink at her and a small smirk pulling at his mouth, and she knew that they were back to normal. The story of their lives. They would have a blow-out and then just like that, it would be over.

Since my head is a bit all over the place, I can't remember if I ever posted an explanation to Liz and Max's living conditions here. I know that there were some confusion about that on other fanfic pages, but I can't remember if I posted anything here. Sorry. My brain is dead. So, I'll just write the explanation here anyway.

Max is living on his own. He has his own apartment. Liz and Michael share an apartment (this chapter will come later). Max kinda hates his apartment and he spends a lot of time at Michael and Liz's place, just because he hangs out with Michael a lot. A lot of the hanging out also results in beer drinking with Michael and so Max can't drive home. So he's just taken to staying over, sleeping on the couch, most of the time. He spends a lot of his time (daytime) in his apartment, it's just that this story is about all the encounters between Max and Liz and since they don't hang out together at his place his apartment time won't be acknowledged.

And now to the more important part. All you beautiful readers. Thanks a million for all your opinions and comments!

Laira
Sara
Rachael
behrlyliz

behrlyliz wrote:

max and liz believer wrote:
“She’s fine, isn’t she?” he said. He looked up at Max, a smug on his face. “But that shouldn’t be a secret to you, Evans.”

I'm probably reading way more into this but was he implying that Max was once involved with Liz or that by being Michael's best friend and being around Liz a lot, it's only natural that he'd notice that she's grown up?

I'm not gonna say too much, but really, the surrounding high school population really doesn't know anything about Liz and Max's relationship. Their facts are purely based on that they see Liz and Max in the same place a lot. This is mostly because Michael automatically pulls them together by both spending time with his sister and Max. To the general teenager, this is fairly suspicious and they just assume that Liz and Max must be together behind the scenes. Now...whether Max and Liz actually have been together or not, that's a completely different issue.

behrlyliz wrote:Besides the time when Max's mother died, has there been another incident between them when Max was drunk, that we'll later get a snap shot of? Or was he just making the point that he'd never do that to a girl?

Max is generally a party guy. He's one of the jocks actually (believe it or not). But he still has principles and morals. And you have probably (hopefully) picked up by now that he is not a bad guy. So basically what he meant was that he would never treat a girl - drunk or not - the way that guy treated Liz.

pookie76

pookie76 wrote:Apparently she still partys and then ends up feeling dirty because she got involved with someone for the wrong reasons.

Yes, Liz has a tendency to end up in trouble. Alcohol just doesn't agree that very well with her.

guel
RoninBehr
Alien_Friend
roswell3053

roswell3053 wrote:I don't think that he truely knew how to act because his emotions were fueling his anger.

I think you have a very good point there.

carolina_moon
Ms_BuffyAnneSummers
Eve
bettylove8

bettylove8 wrote:He's so protective of her, he obviously cares so much and its just sad that it seems like she doesn't value her self worth as much as he does. It's almost like she wants to be rescued, even as much as she tries to act so unaffected and bratty, he seems to think so much more of her than that, and she just allows herself to fall into that role of being young and stupid.

Very interesting point. That I somehow got that through to you is amazing. Nicely analysed

Michelle in Yonkers wrote:The rest I chalk up to the horror of finding her the way he did, and knowing that he was seconds away from being too late--in a way, he already was. (I still think she should have gone to some kind of clinic, and gotten tested for rufies -- can they do that?)

Funny you should mention that. I put a hospital visit into the original version of that chapter, but my beta advised me to remove it since both Max and Liz were underage and going to the hospital heavily intoxicated was perhaps not such a good idea. I thought she had a valid point (even though the safer option of course would've been to take her to the hospital and deal with the consequences later) so I removed it. But yes, they are able to test for rufies.

We are now jumping back in time again. To a time when Liz had yet to screw up; before jumping into bed with strangers and getting ridiculously drunk.

Who knew that Max Evans would be the one to introduce her to alcohol?

Yeah, we're not really surprised, are we?

Here we go

5. Ears, wine and virgins

Michael’s Bedroom
Friday evening
(2002) Max is 17, Liz is 16

Liz giggled. “You have really funny ears.”

Max frowned, offended. “Do not.”

Liz smiled broadly, staring hard at his ears. “Yes, you do!”

“Shut up.”

“They’re completely sticking out of your head.” She cocked her head, fascination smoothening out her facial features. “I can see the sun through them.”

“Can we please not talk about my ears?”

She inched closer to him, a large smile on her face as she leaned over him where they were lying next to each other on the bed. “They’re not that bad. It makes you look cute. In a funny way.”

Max’s eyes widened as he looked up at her with a fuzzy mind. “You’re calling me cute? Cute? Don’t you know that a girl should never call a guy ‘cute’? Besides, do you have any idea of how many women would love to be lying where you’re lying right now? Next to this handsome man.”

Liz snorted. “Puhlease. Women? Right. Sluts.”

“They’re not sluts.”

“Someone that sleeps with someone they barely know after being around them for a total of fifteen minutes is a slut.”

“It’s just the power of my incredible charm.”

Liz laughed. “I think it’s more about the fact that you’re not butt ugly and the girls settle for you because they’re horny.”

Liz looked at him incredulously. “That’s what you got out of what I just said?”

Max grinned. “I think you’re finally warming up to me, Parker.”

Normally, she probably would have a very good comeback at this point, but the alcohol in her blood was muffling her cognitive functions.

She frowned. “Could you turn your head?”

He squinted back. “Huh?”

“Your red ears are distracting me.”

“You’re a mean woman, Parker.”

“Oh, so now it’s my fault that you have such weird ears?”

“I thought we decided to get off the ear subject.”

“You decided.”

“Right. So….”

“Where’s Mike?”

The eternal question.

Max frowned and tried to turn his head to look at the alarm clock on the night stand. But realizing just how much effort that involved, he gave up half-way and looked back at Liz with a thoughtful expression. “How long has he been gone?”

Liz rolled away from him onto her back and mumbled. “I have no idea.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“You’re asking permission? That’s new.”

“Is this the first time you’ve been drunk?”

“I’m not drunk.”

“You’re voluntarily lying next to me on a bed.”

As if considering this, Liz paused before she answered. “That’s true.” Turning to face him again, she added. “You’re actually not that bad when I’m drunk, Evans. You look better, somehow.”

“I’m not really sure how to react to that…”

“Is there more?”

Max smiled, thinking that she was talking about him. “There’s always more.”

She frowned, not really sure what he was getting at. “Of the wine.”

His smile faltered, in that confused slightly muddled sort of way that usually accompanied sluggish trails of thoughts. “Eh. There should be one on your side.”

She turned her head to the other side and scanned the floor. “I can’t see it.”

“It should be there.”

“You probably have it on your side.”

“No.”

“Have you checked?”

“No.”

“Then check.”

“Should be on your side.”

Then he decided to reach across her to be able to see the floor on her side just as she was reaching down over the edge of the bed to search the floor with her hand. Her rather imbalanced position plus most of his weight suddenly draped across her back had her loosing her completely losing her balance and before they really knew what had happened they were both on the floor.

“Ow.” Liz tried to push his weight off of her.

Their lack of coordination had them moving around in a failing mass of limbs which in the end just had them ending up in about the same position, out of breath from the struggle.

They simultaneously stilled and looked at each other, Max on top of Liz, his eyes drawn to the fascinating play of shadows crossing her face as the sun set outside the window.

It was in this position that Liz went into sharing mode. “Billy wants to take the next step.”

Max tensed. “What?”

“Apparently he’s not happy about us just making out anymore.”

Max briefly wondered if this girl had any idea that she should not be talking about sex when she had a very virulent young man lying on top of her, before he said dumbfounded, “Are you going to ask me about sex?”

Liz shrugged. “It just seemed appropriate. This just made me think of it.”

He stared at her with his mouth hanging open for a second before he started laughing.

Her eyes darkened with irritation. “What?”

Max shook his head slowly. “Seriously Lizzie. You’re one of a kind.”

Without missing a beat, she said seriously. “I’m a virgin.”

That put an abrupt stop to his laughing and he said slowly, “Parker, I really don’t think-“

“I’m scared.”

The topic of conversation was slowly but surely bringing Max out of his intoxicated state. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to get Liz Parker drunk after all.

“About what?” he asked carefully.

“Sex. Having sex.”

He sighed and rolled off her. “Right.” He scrubbed his hands down his face as she slowly sat up opposite him.

“What if I’m not doing things right?”

He leaned his head into his hand. He couldn’t look at her right now. For some reason this conversation put an ache in his chest. “Jesus, kitten. Why are you asking me this?”

“I need to do it eventually, right? I need to have sex eventually. What if I never have the guts to? Does that mean I’m gonna be a virgin for the rest of my life? That I will never know what it feels like?”

Max had slept with two girls, but having this conversation still had the ability to make him blush. Didn’t she have any girlfriends to talk about these things with?

“Don’t you have any other friends you can talk to about this?”

“I’m asking you,” she said and looked at him almost expectantly.

“I can’t really… you know… I can’t give you a woman’s…perspective,” Max said, desperately searching for the right words.

“Have you ever been with a virgin?”

“Riight,” Max said slowly and tried to rise from the floor. “No more alcohol for you.”

“I’m serious,” Liz’s voice drifted up from her position on the floor. “Will it hurt?”

“They didn’t really share that with me,” Max said, starting to walk around the room to find something he could do to distract her away from the topic.

“So they were virgins?”

He looked at her and for the first time noticed her distressed eyes. Right there and then he decided to be frank with her. “One of them was.”

“Did she tell you anything?”

“No, I kinda just gave her time,” Max said slowly. “She let me know when we could…uhm…continue.”

“What am I supposed to do? I mean, what do you like a girl to do?”

Max sighed loudly. “Christ, Lizzie. Could we please not talk about this?”

She looked at him silently for a couple of seconds, before dropping her head into her arms that she had folded across her knees that she had pulled up against her chest. “What if he’s disappointed with me?”

At her muffled question, Max walked up to her and dropped to his knees in front of her. Without a word he folded his arms around her body and pulled her close, her legs separating them from complete closeness.

“I don’t know much about a girl’s side of this thing,” he said, breathing in the fresh smell of her hair as he leaned his head on her shoulder, “but I think that if you’re so worried about if he’s going to be disappointed, you shouldn’t do this. It’s probably not the right person or the right time. Your first time should be with someone that you feel completely comfortable with and you don’t have to worry about those sorts of things. It will just sort itself out.”

“It’s just so embarrassing,” she mumbled. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the thought of taking my clothes off in front of anyone and having anyone touching me.”

He pulled away from her and smiled at her softly, tenderly pushing a strand of hair off her forehead. “You’ll be fine. They’re gonna have to earn it, okay? You shouldn’t sleep with someone just because he demands to. He should work for it.”

She smiled brightly, tears glittering in her eyes. “You’re a really good girlfriend.”

He laughed softly, shook his head and said warmly, “You’re an idiot.”

She matched his laughter and then to his surprise pulled him into a tight hug. Against his ear she whispered, “You’re my best friend, Max Evans.”

“Whoa, kitten. You really are drunk.”

“Shh… it’s a secret. No one is supposed to know. Especially not you.”

“About the drinking or you loving me and wanting to have my children?”

Liz let go of him just in time to see the grin on his face, but the alcohol was still having a warm, fuzzy effect on her, preventing any possible indignation, and so she smiled. “Both.”

Max wasn’t one to argue and gladly put his feet up on the TV-table, nodding in agreement. “Okay.”

Michael grabbed his keys off the kitchen counter and was half-way out the door when he turned, asking for cash which forced Max to search his pockets. Finding a scrunched up ten, Michael grabbed it and was out the door, leaving Max to himself.

Well, not completely.

Her feet barely made a sound as she walked down the hallway to the kitchen, but he still knew that she was there.

Max looked up from the TV and wordlessly watched her walk into the kitchen, which was merely an extension of the open-planned living room. His eyes travelled down her form as she bent over to look over the contents of the refrigerator. She was wearing miniscule shorts, which she had picked out because she thought they were cute, without having the slightest clue to how it affected his male mind.

“Need help?” he asked, smirking as she slightly jumped in surprise.

He could hear her intake of breath before she slowly turned around, smiling at him politely. One of those smiles that always aggravated him.

“I’m quite capable, thank you.”

“Oh, I can see that.”

Her face fell slightly and he could almost see that busy brain working away at what he meant. The second she caught onto his sexual connotation she smiled at him sweetly.

“How about you go back to doing what you do best? Drink, watch sports and scratch yourself.”

His eyes widened in invitation. “Actually! I have an itch-“

Liz’s face scrunched up with disgust and pressed out with utter distaste. “Yeah right.”

“You didn’t have a problem with it before.”

He knew that he had hit a nerve when she without another word turned her back towards him again and ripped open the freezer door. And it bothered him.

As she pulled out the chocolate fudge ice cream, he placed the beer bottle on the table and sauntered over to her. She closed the door to the freezer and to a causal observer it might seem as if she wasn’t aware of his presence, but Max could read her like an open book. How her body tensed up all over, with every step that further decreased the distance between them.

“Are we ever going to talk about it?”

Liz sidestepped his hand as he attempted to touch her arm and causally strode over to the counter. “Where did Mike go?”

“So you’re just gonna pretend it never happened?”

“I thought you were going to watch the game.”

Max sighed and walked across the floor to stand close to her.

Liz shivered as she felt the heat of his breath against her neck. Frustrated with her own betraying emotions, she quite violently ripped the kitchen drawer open and pulled out a spoon. “You’re in my personal space.”

Max responded by pressing the front of his body against her back, his hands taking a firm hold of her hips.

“Am I?” he breathed. “Is it always so damn cold here?”

Liz ripped the lid off of the ice-cream container, biting her lip to stop herself from screaming. Because if she screamed he would know that he was getting to her.

Instead she calmly said, “I keep the temperature down for assholes.”

She held back a sigh as his hands started to wander north, his fingertips wandering underneath the bottom edge of her sweater. Skin touching skin.

“You can’t ignore me forever.”

Her hand tightened around the handle of the spoon and she slowly dug into the ice-cream, digging out a large scoop of the frozen dairy product. Before Max saw it coming he was experiencing the rather unpleasant sensation of having ice-cream running down the inside of his T-shirt.

He stared at Liz, his mouth hanging open in something akin to shock and before Liz could stop herself, she burst into laughter.

“It seemed like you needed to cool down,” she gasped before spinning out of his reach and running towards her room.

But Max Evans hadn’t made quarterback on the school team because of his good looks and the ice-cream tub and spoon were in his hands within a split second.

Liz could hear him behind her and she picked up her steps. She felt exhilarated, laughter running across her lips, but at the same time slightly scared. She really didn’t want Max to get a hold of her. Reaching the end of the hallway, she pushed the door to her room open and was just about to shut it closed when Max came barreling through, the force of his body pushing the door open and having her fall to the floor.

“No Max, no…” Liz giggled as Max straddled her waist, a wicked look in his eyes and the ice-cold weapons occupying his hands.

His body must be producing a lot of heat or something, because that must be the only reason why she suddenly felt really hot.

“Don’t-“ and then she screamed as Max spread his ice-cream covered palm across her exposed throat.

“You bastard!”

As she tried to dig non-existent fingernails into his thighs to get him off of her, he was already digging into the ice-cream again, now with his fingers. She wasn’t sure which made her more angry: that fact that he was completely failing to even attempt to hide his amusement, or the fact that sticky, cold ice-cream was now slowly trickling down into her bra.

And then there was ice-cream on her face. She gasped as the cold sensation hit her skin, momentarily paralyzing her body.

Max burst out laughing and she felt her face grow hot, quickly melting the ice-cream.

“Do you have any idea of how funny you look?!” Max laughed.

Catching him off guard, Liz pulled her leg upwards and pushed her knee upwards with grave accuracy.

“Fuck!” Max groaned in pain and rolled off her, his hands pressed to his crotch and his forehead pressed against the floor.

Watching him, she pushed the fluttering feelings of guilt out of the way and said coldly. “Serves you right.”

She strode across the floor but was pulled to the floor by Max’s firm hand around her around her ankle, before she had a chance to reach the door.

She fell next to him, coming face to face with him. His face was flushed and his eyes painful and she swallowed. Why did the presence of pain in his eyes affect her so?

“Why are you like that, Parker?” he got out between gasping breaths. “You used to be fun.”

She stared at him, feeling her walls melting along with the ice-cream sticking to her face. Maybe she should talk to him. Maybe that’s what they needed. He had a point; they used to have fun. In their own way. But nothing had been the same, not since that day. She licked her lips, tasting the sugar from the melting ice-cream.

“I-“

But her voice was cut off by a loud sigh.

Max and Liz broke apart, staring guiltily at the person standing in the doorway.

“I leave you two alone for five minutes and this is what you do?”

Then he took a closer look at Liz’s face and chuckled. “Man…” Turning his eyes to Max, he shook his head in disbelief. “Did you do that? Are you trying to kill each other?”

Liz’s face burned with embarrassment as she pulled herself up from the floor.

“Is that ice-cream?” Michael wondered as his sister tried to walk past him.

“She started it,” Max mumbled sourly.

Michael raised an eyebrow. “When are you gonna stop this never-ending battle of yours?”

“Stay out of it, Mike,” Max said.

Michael frowned, the smile slipping off his face. There was something different about the scene. Sure, Max and Liz always seemed dead-set on killing each other, but it had always been more or less good-natured. At least from Max’s side. But now they just seemed truly…upset.

He watched Max scramble from the floor with great difficulty, grimacing and groaning.

“What happened, man?”

“Just leave it,” Max murmured.

Michael watched his best friend gingerly walk out of the room and had a fairly good idea what had happened. At least physically. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that something about the whole thing was off.

Taking a deep breath and making a mental shrug, he followed Max to the TV-room to watch the game.

Laira
Elizabeth
twilight
Alien_Friend
kay_b
Rebecca
Emma
DreamerMaxBehrian - You have some really good points and the scenarios you've lined up are all very possible.

DreamerMaxBehrian wrote:And when I did so, I very clearly saw how something big had to have happened because they’d gone from being “enemies” (in the prologue when Max was 16 and Liz was 15), to admitting to each other (when they were drunk ) that they considered themselves best friends (in Chapter 5, when Max was 17 and Liz 16), to in later chapters, Max being the person Liz “loved to hate” once more (at least, when he’s sober ).

Yep. That about sums it up.

DreamerMaxBehrian wrote:One thing is for sure...the more I see of him, the less mature I’m thinking he really is...at least as far as his sober relationship with Liz goes. And his bad behavior has directly caused Liz’s bad behavior...that she’s acting that way, perhaps, to get back at him and/or get his attention.

Oh, you're good. You're really good.

Tears of Mercury

Tears of Mercury wrote:And, okay, does it make me a particular kind of cruel that I think Max deserved what he got.

All I know is that if you corner an anxious/frightened animal, you are very likely to get bitten

pookie76
Eve
jake17
confusedfool
Aurorabee

Aurorabee wrote:Please don't ever go away again. It's been too long between your stories. Can we just keep you tethered here somehow?

That's so sweet. Thank you, hun.

Kris
Michelle

Michelle in Yonkers wrote:And 'smacking' is one thing, but a kick to the groin is another. If Max had been annoyed and had hauled off and hit her, would that have been cute? Or justifiable in any way? It's not justifiable when a female does it either. It was a game. To go from playful wrangling to a martial arts move is not cool, and not adorable.

That is very true.

Michelle in Yonkers wrote:And Part 2 was labeled 3, but there were two parts labeled that, so I changed one so we'd have a Part 2

Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I didn't even realize.

Karen
Christina - thank you so much coming out of Lurkdom and giving me your point of view on this story of confusion.

Wench on A Leash wrote:So, max and liz believer, or Jo, or whatever you'd like to be called...

I prefer Jo

Blink1lit
francesca
behrlyliz

behrlyliz wrote:OMG! You are so freakin' brilliant. I have that problem, too. I never write in chronological order and I can't post the ten or fifteen parts I have written for a story because it's not time yet. And then I end up losing my muse and it's literally years before I get it back.

It is difficult, isn't it? But it kinda works well with this story because it's all snapshots and I don't even bother to care about everything that might happen in between (with Maria, Michael and everyone) if it doesn't somehow involve Max and Liz. This is very much a Dreamer focused fic.

A large part of why I'm able to update so frequently is definitely because of you guys and your feedback (and the fantastic ability of my beta to edit things superfast). It just fuels my writing. So thank you so much for every word. You really make it easier for me to deal with my stressful real life. Thank you.

Okay, I don't know how you do it. Here I am again, ready to post. I won't be posting this frequently during the week though (you have been warned) because I have to start studying now, but you're definitely getting at least one part during next week (haven't decided when yet).

For those of you who are confused (is that all of you.. ? - Me included). Here's the timeline I go by (hopefully you can read my handwriting). Of course I haven't filled in what is about to happen yet. That would be telling.

7. Shocking Revelations

Roswell High School
Prom night
(2003) Max is 18, Liz is 17

“Max? Max? Hello? Maaax?”

Max tore his eyes away from the entrance, where Liz Parker had just made an appearance, and looked down at the blonde in front of him.

“What?” he asked calmly, trying to erase the image of Liz from his brain.

“I’m getting something to drink, do you want anything?”

His eyes drifted across the floor, back to the entrance where Liz was smiling as she talked to her brother. Her date was standing close to her, an arm slung across her shoulders. He felt a twitch of something run through him and his jaw muscles tightened.

“Maaax?”

He looked back down at his date, her impatient expression telling him that he had annoyed her again somehow.

“Yes, Tess,” he said, with a slight edge this time.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she said.

He sighed. He should really pull it together. What was wrong with him? “Sorry. I guess I’m a bit tired.”

His eyes drifted back to Liz and then he slowly shook his head. “No. I’m fine.”

“Okay,” she said. “Be back in a sec.”

But his attention was already elsewhere as he moved towards Michael, Liz and her date.

“Hey man,” he said, punching Michael lightly on his shoulder.

“Ahh…the manly display of affection,” Liz said.

Max turned to look at her, as if just noticing her. “Oh, hello Parker. How are things? I didn’t know you were allowed to these things. Not in another year at least.”

She gave him a tight smile and pulled Alex Whitman into her side. “Max, you know Alex, don’t you? He’s in your year. He asked me to the prom. Which by my calculations means that I’m allowed to go.”

Max couldn’t help himself. With Liz, everything was fair ground. “What happened to Daniel?” And he cringed as Michael kicked his heel. Not very gently either.

Liz eyes grew dark and Max felt his heart rate pick up. Did she have any idea how sexy she looked when she got all bothered and angry?

“He couldn’t make it.”

“Why not?”

“He was elsewhere occupied.”

“I think I saw him earlier with Rachel. Here. At the prom.”

“Max,” Michael said in a clear warning.

“I decided to go with Alex instead. Daniel just had to find a substitute.”

“Funny. I heard it was the other way around.”

That’s when Michael decided to pull on Max’s arm and dragged him away from Liz.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Michael hissed out. “Why are you pushing this?”

“Sorry man,” Max said, feeling honestly sorry now that he could distance himself from Liz. It was just being in Liz’s company that…brought the worst out of him. He knew that he shouldn’t press the subject. But it was just part of their everyday battle.

“Whatever man,” Max shrugged and walked off, glancing over his shoulder over in Liz’s direction. To his surprise, she was watching him as well. As their eyes met, she quickly turned away and he raised an eyebrow at the movement.

Interesting.

His grin fell as someone grabbed his arm. He looked down into blue eyes.

“This is one of my favorite songs,” Tess announced with a wide smile.

“Then we should dance to it,” Max smiled back, putting an arm around her waist and guiding her out on the dance floor.

”Oh…it’s you,” Liz sighed as she opened the door.

Max frowned. Okay. They usually weren’t the friendliest with each other, but “Where’s the enthusiasm, kitten?”

She rolled her eyes, which…looked slightly red to Max. “Whatever.”

“Is everything okay?”

She looked up at the softness in his voice and then slowly nodded. “Peachy.” The sarcasm was tangible.

Michael chose this moment to walk into the hallway and Liz left without another word.

“What’s up with her?” Max asked Michael.

“She was going to the prom and now she’s not,” Michael answered.

“Really? Who was taking her?”

“Daniel Johansson.”

Max looked at Michael dubiously. “And she said ‘yes’?”

Michael shrugged. “She wants to go to the prom.”

“What about standards? She’ll sacrifice them just so that she can go to the prom?”

“Dunno man. Doesn’t matter anyway. He stood her up. Called her today and told her that he changed his mind and was going with Rachel Aniston.”

Hot anger ran through his vessels and he looked at Michael bitterly, “Bastard.”

“You’re telling me,” Michael agreed. “I wanted to go over there and rip him another one, but Lizzie wouldn’t let me. Instead she’s been sitting in her room all day, crying.”

Max’s heart clenched. Bastard. What came out of his mouth was in complete opposite to what he felt, “At least she still has her own prom next year,” because if Liz wanted to go to the prom this year, she should be able to.

Michael scratched his eyebrow. “Yeah, I suppose.”

Max hitched his thumb in the direction of the toilet. “I’m just gonna-“

Michael gave a short nod and disappeared up the stairs to his room while Max walked into the bathroom and secured the door behind him.

Going through his phonebook, he came up with the only decent guy he knew of that wasn’t related to Liz and pressed the call button.

“Alex, hey. It’s Evans.”

Liz was going to that prom. He would see to it. There was no way she was going to sit in her room and mope around the night of the prom.

But she could never find out what he had done. He would have to make sure that Alex would keep it a secret.

“Where’s your date?”

Liz looked up and met his eyes. “Toilet.”

He sat down next to her. “He abandoned you.”

“I’m not sure I want to go and hold his hand while he's in the toilet.”

“You know, most guys wouldn’t disapprove of that.”

“Eww.”

He smiled as she turned away from him to grab her glass. “Come on, Parker. You know what this night is about, don’t you?”

And if Alex Whitman even considered touching her Max was going to cut off certain dear parts. Which he had made sure to properly inform Alex about before they had made the deal.

She looked over at him as if he had lost his mind. “I’m not discussing this with you.”

“Oh come on,” Max grinned. “Are you planning for this to be your big night? Or are you gonna step away from the cliché way of losing your virginity?”

“Who says I’m a virgin?”

Max’s smile quickly slipped off his lips and he stared at her in horror. “What?”

She raised one eyebrow and calmly said, “It’s not like I would tell you if I lost my virginity, so how come you’re so certain that I’m still a virgin?”

He knew he was staring. And he knew that he should close his mouth. But she just couldn’t be telling the truth.

“I’m serious, Lizzie,” Max said and to his right looked deadly serious. His heart had more or less stopped beating. “Who was it?”

“Just leave it, Max. Just because you told me everything about the time you lost your virginity – even though I didn’t ask to hear it – doesn’t mean I have to tell you.”

He felt nauseous. He wanted to beat up whoever had put his hands on her. He wanted to turn back the hands of time and tell her to not sleep with whoever she had slept with.

“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

She looked away and started to fidget with the flower attached to her wrist, a clear sign to Max that she was getting uncomfortable. Which by pulling all the pieces of information together, meant that someone had hurt her.

“Jesus, Liz. Did someone force you?”

Liz stood up so suddenly she almost tripped over her chair. Looking down at him with fire in her eyes, she said forcibly. “Leave me alone. This is none of your business.”

He grabbed her wrist before she could storm off, his eyes pleading her for an answer, “Please. Just tell me.”

She sighed. “No, Max. It was incredible. He was gentle and caring and I was very, very satisfied. Okay?”

Max swallowed back the nausea and slowly let her go. She walked off, bumping into Alex on her way to the exit. Shooting a glance into Max’s direction, she grabbed Alex and promptly kissed him.

A shiver of dark jealousy raced across Max’s skin and he rose from the chair. He needed to find Tess.

There's so much discussion and so many theories floating around right now, so I'm gonna try and keep my nose out of most of it. There are just some questions/aspects that I felt needed to be adressed and they are done so below.

max and liz believer wrote:Remember, I have a big problem with writing glorified characters, so my Liz and Max are far from perfect (as you might've noticed). There is reason to their madness (most of the time), you just don't...uhm...know it yet.

And I love that about your characters! I hope it didn't sound like I didn't like them, when I posted the fb earlier?

I perfectly get you, Michelle. I was just putting a general warning out there that this is not a fuzzy happy place seen through rose shimmery glasses. I love all of your analyses and I love that you - as many of the other readers have expressed as well - love to read about real people. At least I'm not alone

Michelle in Yonkers wrote:(Although, since the rival date was named Rachel Aniston, it did put me in mind of an episode of Friends, )

Hehe...yes. My creativity for names is more or less gone right now so I'm becoming kinda desperate. There are just way too many random people in this story that need names.

DreamerMaxBehrian (6)- Uhm... I'm speechless. You seem to be suffering from the same syndrome like me; You think too much. Or wait, maybe that's just the X-chromosome again. Us girls tend to like to analyse, right? You have some really good points, not all correct, but most not very far off. I won't say much more than that

DreamerMaxBehrian wrote:He's capable of taking care of himself physically. Is Liz? She's tiny, and to our knowledge she hasn't taken a defense course.

Actually, she kinda has. But you don't know that yet. Because I haven't told you yet

DreamerMaxBehrian wrote:You know, I'm wondering if the reason why Max was initially so hateful to Liz the night of prom was his way of trying to ensure that she'd never suspect he had anything to do with setting her up with Alex to take her. That would make sense to me then. I still don't like how he was acting, but it would be like he was trying to keep her off his scent. Hmmm The problem is that he got a little carried away and went a bit overboard with it. The word "overkill" springs to mind...

Ah...we have a winner (couldn't let that one go unnoticed)

Christina (3)

Wench on a Leash wrote:It's so frustrating though, because we know he's doing it because he loves her, so it tugs at our heart-strings and makes us go "aww," then pisses us off (or me, at least) when he knocks her down after doing something sweet. (ie) making her feel vulnerable when he took his shirt back after 'saving her' from the horrible incident at the party, telling her she wasn't 'all that bad' of a kisser after their first kiss, being horribly rude about Daniel standing her up after he made sure she had Alex as a date.

Okay, this has been mentioned several times, so I just have to comment on it. About Max taking his shirt back after the pool incident. He was not doing that to be mean. The reason why he removed the shirt was because he was certain that she was going to catch a cold or pneumonia if she kept sitting in that wet shirt. He had already wrapped a blanket around her, so it's not like she would be naked. Then she wouldn't remove the shirt (because she's Liz and stubborn) and in the heat of the moment, he kinda doesn't think about the fact that she's naked underneath that shirt and tears it off her without computing her humiliation at being in front of him more or less naked - with only the shield of her arms. It was not Max's intention to embarrass her by removing her clothes. It was his backward way of preventing her from catching a cold. I hope that cleared it up.
Everything else you mentioned in that quote highlighted some really good points

Wench on a Leash wrote:And I have to say, this is one of the few fics that I actually enjoy reading everyone's thoughts almost as much as the actual fic itself. Well, at least, reading everyone's thoughts keeps me occupied while waiting for new updates.

I loooove your thoughts! A lot of you have seriously complex brains.

Alien_Friend
dreamsatnight
ShatteredDreamer
Rebecca - I haven't had time to work on any more manips. Sorry I have an exam on Thursday so I have to study for that. But it's a national holiday on Friday so I will have time all Friday to (hopefully) finish it off for you.
XYZ

XYZ wrote:All the little snapshots that don’t follow a chorological order make this story so amazing to read. It is like a big puzzle that forms a whole picture in the end.

I love this description. Thank you

Emma
Laira (12) - Thank you for the great analyses! And the pestering
L-J-L 76
Eve
omwf

omwf wrote:I love this fic. I love this fic. I love this fic.
I hope it is constructive enough for a feedback.

Your message came through loud and clear

Aurorabee
Alien614
azure
roswell4life
Mica
behrlyliz
yayaliens - btw, I love your username!
francesca
smith82 - Couldn't help but notice that you're a new member. Welcome to the board!
RoninBehr
Karen (2)
roswellianprincess16 (2)- Hiii sweetie! Long time no see, huh? So... I still haven't finished that homepage for you. Time passes, doesn't it? You're probably ready for a whole other layout now anyway, aren't you? I'm so happy that you decided to read one of my stories. That makes me feel so...warm and fuzzy.
carolina_moon
Ju (5) - haha, yeah right. Re-converter of long lost Rosfic readers. But thank you
Sara
roswell3053
Alex Balex
Elizabeth - You rule!

And about Max's reaction to Liz's revelation. A lot of you have mentioned that it made him seem very selfish, as if he wanted to have Liz to himself. Even though I don't want to explain the characters' actions too much, I have to clear this one out. Max was not as much upset by the fact that she had lost her virginity, but more because he didn't know (which I think you, Laira, kinda referred to in your latest long post). That might not sound more reasonable, but that's Max logic. Even though they are not the best of friends, you have all noticed that their lives are very well entwined and what shocked Max was that he could be so involved in her life and miss such a huge thing. That might start a discussion on that it's wrong of Max to assume that Liz should report back to him, but Max's first reaction might not have been logical it was just a reaction. Of feeling slightly out of the loop.

If it's right or not is up to each and everyone to decide. I just wanted to clarify that little thing.

Michelle in Yonkers wrote:Though he's experienced, he has never taken a woman who wasn't conscious enough to be sure she was willing, nor have we seen him having a sexual fling just to prove something -- like Liz.

Hmm...well, that might change with this chapter

For the chronology of this story, this chapter is a couple of weeks before the death of Max's mom and after Max get's Liz drunk for the first time.

I was intending to update my Timeline sheet, but time has run away from me and I really have to go to bed now.

8. Scaring Mr. Evans

Roswell High School
Tuesday noon
(2003) Max is 17, Liz is 16

Liz stretched the bottom of her shirt out in front of her to look at the stain of mayonnaise firmly planted at the level of her bellybutton.

“Great,” she mumbled. “Freaking fantastic.”

Sure, a lot of people were cursed with clumsiness, but why did that trait have to rear its ugly head whenever she was around? When she said ‘a lot of people’, she was really talking about Maria DeLuca. Her New Age hippie friend.

It was the third time this week that Maria had accidently slipped and spilled something on her innocent by-standing brunette friend.

And it was only Tuesday.

Still perusing the stain, she pushed the bathroom door open with the back of her shoulder and crossed the floor to the sink.

Mumbling curses under her breath, she turned the tap on. Being her absolute lucky day, the tap was turned on full force and sprayed Liz’s front with cold water. She screamed in frustration and turned the tap off.

That’s when she noticed she wasn’t alone. She heard a female giggle and the shuffling of clothes. Metal from a belt hit the stall wall and she looked up into the mirror to see one of the bathroom stalls behind her occupied.

Either someone was having a lot of fun in the stall alone… or that someone had some help.

“Freaking fantastic,” she repeated and turned her eyes back to her shirt. She pushed some soap out of the dispenser on the wall and started to smear it out into the mayonnaise. “I should teach her how to walk. Can it really be that difficult to put one foot in front of the other?”

She didn’t really care if the person(s) in the stall heard her as she talked under her breath. She had never really cared about what people thought and wasn’t about to start now. Besides, everyone pretty much took her for an odd person already anyway.

A soft moan echoed in the room and Liz’s hands slowed their scrubbing. She scrunched her nose in disgust. “Ugh. Why? Why do these things happen to me?”

There was a soft bang against the stall wall and audible kissing sounds followed by another moan.

Biting her tongue to not scream at them, Liz turned on the tap and started to wash the soap and mayonnaise out of the fabric.

A louder moan broke through the sound of the running tap.

“That’s it,” Liz grumbled, turned off the tap and twisted the bottom of her shirt with her hands to get most of the water out before she spun on her heels and stomped up to the stall door.

The noises on the other side stopped abruptly as she banged her fist against the door.

“Do you mind?! Could you at least have the courtesy to fuck somewhere else?!”

She stared at the quiet door for another ten seconds, before rolling her eyes skyward and walking over to the hand-dryer to dry her shirt. The dryer drowned out whatever sounds might be happening inside the stall from then on. The door opened just as the dryer had finished one cycle and grew quiet. Before Liz had the chance to wave her hands around to activate the dryer again, a familiar voice made her freeze.

“I should’ve known.”

With narrowed eyes and bile building up in her throat, she turned and locked eyes with her life nemesis, a.k.a Max Evans.

He smirked. “No one is better at ruining my day than you.”

Her eyes travelled down his body as he finished buttoning up his jeans. Then she looked at the blonde girl walking up behind him, trying to smoothen her hair with one hand and straighten her wrinkled shirt with the other.

“What a surprise,” she said softly, dark feelings simmering just below the surface. “Our all American Quarterback is fucking another cheerleader in the toilet. What would we ever do without you jocks to reinforce the clichés?”

“Are you jealous, Parker?” the girl asked, wrapping one arm around Max’s waist. “We all know you’ve been wanting to get into Max’s pants for like forever.”

Liz’s gaze grew darker as she glared at the girl before delivering a fake smile. “Oh yeah.” She said with an upbeat voice. “You are, like, totally, like, right! I’ve always wanted to be fucked by someone that doesn’t really, like, care about me – like, at all. Someone who is just using me to get off and will exchange me the next day. Yeah. You’re right. I’m totally jealous!”

She glanced at Max’s face, seeing an amused look on his face, mixed with something she couldn’t quite decipher.

The cheerleader huffed. “Bitch.”

Max raised one eyebrow, his intense stare starting to make Liz uncomfortable, and breathed out with a voice so husky it practically screamed sex. “I’m free this afternoon, Lizzie…”

The airhead of a girl standing next to him giggled, the tone being slightly off. Liz wouldn’t be surprised if the girl had actually believed that she meant something more to Max than just a one-time fuck. She wouldn’t be surprised if the cheerleader actually had been prepared to convince Liz about that fact, until Max just that second had thrown her off that idea.

The confidence having visibly run off her, the girl looked up at Max, trying to read what was going on. Like the rest of the school, the girl probably knew that Max and Liz spent a lot of time together. What she didn’t know was the constant battle they had between each other. A battle that had its own rules and certainly didn’t include any sporadic bimbos.

Because what Max’s eyes were telling Liz that second was that he was serious. If she was up for it, so was he. Right that second he didn’t care that there was another girl in the room with them. He was only seeing Liz.

Liz happened to look at the girl about the same time that the girl’s self-esteem plummeted, which had Liz smiling inwardly. She could so use this to her advantage.

Appearing more confident than she felt, she walked up to Max, seeing his eyes widen as she got closer. The girl stepped aside in simple confusion as Liz pushed her away with one hand, the other being placed against Max’s chest.

“Is that an invitation?” she asked softly.

She involuntarily shivered as his eyes turned a darker shade as he looked down at her. His free arm, the one not being held in an iron grip by a blonde, came around Liz’s body by its own force, pulling her closer to his body.

As she came into closer contact with the warmth of his body, she shivered for another reason. She wasn’t completely sure what he had done with that girl in the booth, but he could’ve just had sex with her and now he was pulling her a little bit too close for comfort.

“Interested?” he asked and Liz could see the hint of amusement in his eyes, telling her that he knew they were playing.

She placed her index finger lightly against his cheek, tracing it down the slight stubble, her lips forming in a pout as she held his gaze. “I miss you.”

“What’s she talking about?” the high-pitched voice intruded from the outside. Max didn’t even turn to look at the girl.

“Yeah?” Max asked, his eyes travelling to her glistening lips.

“But I understand now that it was never meant to be,” Liz said slowly.

His eyes slightly narrowed as he tried to figure out where she was going with that. His fingers itched under her shirt to feather across the skin of her small back. “Why?”

“It just wouldn’t be fair to you,” Liz whispered. “You should be able to express your love too.”

He frowned. What was she talking about?

“For boys,” she added, a mischievous twinkle glittering in her eyes.

He stared at her for a second before his mouth fell slightly open. Was she insinuating…

“You’re gay?” the blonde asked, her voice quiet with shock.

A victorious smile spread across Liz’s face, making sure that only Max saw it. She brushed her fingers across his lips, feeling goosebumps spread across her skin. “I know. Isn’t it a terrible waste?”

“That’s why…” the blonde started.

Liz tore her eyes away from Max’s, looking at the blonde with interest. “That’s why what?”

Max had yet to regain his ability to form sentences and was still staring at the petite brunette pressed up against him.

“You couldn’t- You said… You said it was because of the interruption, but you were so… You’re gay?”

Liz looked up at Max with a smile. “It’s okay, Max. You don’t have to hide it anymore. No more mindless sex just to prove that you’re something you’re not. Just let it go. Accept it.”

The hand that only a second ago had tantalizingly been stroking the skin of her small back now gripped her upper arm and pulled her away from his body.

“She’s lying,” he bit out, irritation and frustration simmering in his eyes.

Liz watched on with fascination. This was great. If he couldn’t get out of this, the cheery cheerleader would quickly spread the information and Max would never get laid again.

That would completely crush his ego.

Justice would be served.

Hell yeah.

Liz really liked that thought.

“But Max,” Liz said innocently. “You told me yourself.”

“Jenny-“ Max started, now looking at the girl with quiet desperation.

“Meg,” she corrected, causing Liz to bit down on her lip to stop herself from laughing out loud. That, and the slight pain from the hard grip he had on her arm, was the only things stopping her from losing her poker face.

“Meg,” Max started again. “This girl – we hate each other. She would do anything to destroy me. I have never told her that I was gay.”

Poor Meg looked confused. “But you just asked her – in front of me – to have sex with her. As if you know her. As if you’ve had an intimate relationship with her-“

Liz shrugged non-committedly. “Please, it was just sex.”

Max shot her a glare, as Meg ignored her. “Intimate enough to make you tell her that you are not into girls. I mean, everyone totally knows that you and Parker spend a lot of time together. Why would she say something like that about you if it wasn’t true?”

“Yeah, Max? Why would I ever do that?” Liz asked with mock insult. “I care about you. This is for your own good. The sooner you-“

DreamerMaxBehrian wrote: In my dreamer mind, I envisioned him having Liz on the brain by that time (because of the recent bonding experience they'd shared in Ch 5 - the chronological chapter that preceded this one...) and maybe he'd thought having mindless sex with Meg would help take his mind off Liz. Only that didn't happen. But now that I've re-read it again, I can see how maybe MiY is right. Hmmm. Jo...which was it?

Wench on a Leash wrote: I wonder if she's sort of considered one of the "freaks" or "outcasts" at school? Or maybe she's just considered "weird" or "odd" because she's intelligent and won't put out easily? Or 'cause she doesn't go to stupid high school parties or something. Max had mentioned something to her about what the guys said in the locker rooms when Michael wasn't around the time she finally did go to a college party and "tried to be like everyone else for once". I'm just really curious as to why people at school find her "odd" in the first place.

It’s mostly because she always speaks her mind and she doesn’t take crap. This separates her slightly from the rest of the crowd. She just doesn’t play well with others

The apartment
Saturday evening, a couple of weeks after the prom
(2003) Max is 18, Liz is 17

Behold! Max Evans has a girlfriend.

Maybe Liz Parker should be happy about this.

Maybe it should please her to know that he was no longer sleeping around, but had actually formed a commitment to one girl.

But Liz Parker was not happy when Max dragged Tess over to the apartment and she could hear the blonde’s giggles echo down the corridor to her room.

It didn’t please her to see them making out on the couch as she went to get a glass of water.

Liz Parker was annoyed.

If Max Evans wanted to tickle his girlfriend, he should do so at his own place.

If Max Evans wanted to suck on his girlfriend’s face, he should do it somewhere else.

Hearing Tess’ laugh, Liz pressed firm hands over her ears and filled her head with ‘la la la la’ as she walked to the bathroom.

“Gaaah,” she pressed out as she slammed the door shut, not caring if the couple had heard her.

It was just rude. It was just fucking rude to go to someone else’s house and make out with your girlfriend on their couch.

She angrily pulled off her shirt and threw it on the floor. At the back of her head, she knew that she was probably acting like a five-year-old throwing a tantrum, but she just had the urge to stomp her feet and scream.

“Fucking idiot,” she mumbled, his face clear in her head. “I hate him. I hate him. I hate him.”

She pulled her pants and panties down her legs and stepped into the shower. The water dials, shampoo, conditioner, yes everything, were treated like they had cheated on her. She angrily turned the dials, kicked the shampoo bottle around on the tiled floor, hit the conditioner bottle repeatedly into the wall and stepped on the bottle of shower cream, which spurted the product out into the water, fumes of strawberry-scented cream filling the air.

She felt much more relaxed after the shower. Some people needed to go outside and scream. Some people got drunk. Liz Parker abused her cleaning products and she felt rejuvenated.

After towel-drying her hair, she wrapped the towel around her petite body and opened the bathroom door. Only to be faced by The Girlfriend herself.

“Oh,” she said, looking at Liz’s freshly cleaned face and wet hair with a glint in her eye. “Hello.”

“Hey,” Liz mumbled, her eyes darkening as she took a firm grip on the top of her towel so it wouldn’t – for some odd reason – fall off.

Tess slowly raked her eyes down her towel-clad body, a condescending smirk on her face. “Little Lizzie. Didn’t know you were here.”

Oh, and did Liz mentioned how much she hates his girlfriend? Especially this quality of hers to look down at Liz and make her feel like an insignificant ugly ant.

“I live here,” she said, trying not to be too affected by her tone of voice. She could handle this girl. It was just another blonde.

But it wasn’t. It was the blonde Max had chosen to be his first girlfriend. There must be something about this girl to have Max sacrifice his playboy status and that intimidated Liz.

“Yeah, I heard,” Tess said slowly and cocked her head to the side, as if talking to a child.

Liz squinted with her eyes, focusing on the girl’s face hard. Maybe her anger could disintegrate the blonde on the spot. That would be cool.

“How’s school?” Tess wondered with a smirk.

Oh yes, blondie. Rub it in. You’re in college. I’m still in high school. Yes, you are the cooler person here.

Liz covered the sarcastic voice in her head with a tight smile. “Marvelous.”

“Have you two ever…” she left the question hanging, looking at her with a smirk that had Liz suspect she already knew the answer.

Of course Blondie knew the answer. That was probably one of the first things she had asked Max about.

Liz donned a bored expression and said in a monotonous voice. “Yes, actually. He’s my fucking buddy. Whenever he gets tired of the likes of you, he comes to me. He always comes back to me.”

Liz had to struggle not to laugh as Tess’ eyes widened in shock. It was actually a really funny expression.

The shock passed quickly and the blonde’s face darkened. Almost spitting the words out, she looked down at her (even though Liz was an inch taller) and said, “He would never be interested in you. Just look at you.” She waved her hand across Liz’s chest, which had Liz shrinking into herself. “You’ve got absolutely nothing to offer him. You’re flat as a plank, your face is plain, your hair is boring and your personality is awful.”

Okay, so Liz had kinda set herself up for that defensive reply. Didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

“Max has told me the truth, okay,” Tess said darkly. “He’s told me that you are just Mike’s annoying little sister who won’t leave him alone.”

Liz felt hot tears burn her eyes. Tess’ earlier words were not nearly as hurtful as her last words. She pressed her lips together and took a step to the side to step around the girl when she bumped into something.

She already knew who it was without having to look up. His smell surrounded her in a protective cocoon. At least it had symbolized safety a couple of seconds ago, now with Tess’ latest words ringing in her head, it was only suffocating her.

“Hey,” she heard him say and she squeezed her eyes shut, not being able to move because he had grabbed a hold of her arms, probably to steady her. But that didn’t explain why he hadn’t let her go yet. “Is everything alright?”

Just peachy, Liz thought.

Liz heard rather than saw the sugar sweet smile on Tess’ face as she answered, “Everything’s fine. Liz was just showing me to the bathroom.”

“Oh,” Max said and his hands let go of Liz’s bare arms.

She immediately started walking to her bedroom, as if she was a captured animal just let free. She could feel Max’s eyes at the back of her head and as she shut the door to her bedroom behind her, she could hear Max ask Tess what had happened.

She leaned her head against the door and squeezed her eyes tightly together, willing herself to take deep breaths.

She could hear them moving around outside her door, so she turned and twisted the key in the door in case Max decided to walk in.

She let the towel drop on the floor and pulled out her body lotion. Tears running down her cheeks, she methodically massaged lotion into the skin of her legs, biting her tongue to stop herself from sobbing. A sob caught in her throat as she heard Tess laugh loudly in the living room and she heatedly wiped the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand.

Why was she letting that girl get to her?

She pulled out some underwear, a pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt from the wardrobe, and quickly dressed.

As she pulled the T-shirt over her head, there was a knock on the door.

She froze and stared at the door, soundlessly willing the person on the other side to go away. The handle moved but, to her relief, the voice drifting through the door didn’t belong to the guy that only seemed to cause her grief.

“Why’s your door locked?”

Wiping her eyes clear of any tears, she turned the key and opened the door.

Her big brother looked at her oddly. “Have you been crying?”

She shook her head, “I’m just tired,” and turned her head away.

“What are you doing in here? We’re gonna watch a movie.”

“I have to study,” Liz lied.

Michael looked at her suspiciously. Liz was a smart girl. She rarely needed to study.

“It’s ‘The Ring’,” Michael said, knowing perfectly well that Liz had a weakness for horror movies. It was her closet obsession. He also happened to know that she had wanted to see that movie when it was running in the cinemas but never got around to.

“You rented ‘The Ring’?” she asked, hoping that he would say ‘no’ even though she really wanted to see that movie. She just knew that she would have to go out there to see it.

“Yep,” Michael smiled. “You never saw that one, did you?”

She shook her head, her shoulders sloping. She was going out there, wasn’t she?

Sighing deeply, she resigned with an “Okay.”

“Cheer up, squirt. You’re not going into war.”

“I’m just tired,” Liz mumbled as she switched off the light in her room and followed Michael down the hallway.

Tess’ laughter bombarded her eardrums as she approached the living room. Without looking at them, she sank down in the bean bag next to the couch.

“How about we convince the boys to watch something funny instead,” Tess proposed.

Liz sank further into the bean bag, wondering why Tess was talking to her. She was just her for the movie. Why couldn’t Max’s new girlfriend just leave her alone?

“I actually prefer horror movies,” Liz mumbled.

Tess laughed like she had said something funny and Liz looked over in her direction, for the first time looking at Tess – and inadvertently Max. She quickly wished she hadn’t. Tess was curled up against Max’s side, her head resting on his shoulder. Max had one arm wrapped around her shoulders, his fingers playing with her curls, while the other hand was resting on her thigh.

Liz intentionally avoided looking at Max and directed her eyes firmly on Tess’ face. If she just focused on Tess’ face, she could block out everything around. “What’s so funny about that?”

Tess’ face fell at her cold tone and Max shifted slightly. With a hint of warning to his voice, he spoke for the first time since she had joined them, “Liz…“

“Yeah, yeah,” Liz mumbled, turning her head away. “I’ll be nice.”

“So, what’s this movie about?” Tess asked and Liz rolled her eyes. This was going to be a long night.

Tess lasted for about thirty minutes before she was hiding her face in Max’s chest, talking loudly about how scary the movie was.

Liz put up with her monologue for about ten minutes, her jaw clenched and her hands squeezed into tight fists, before she turned to Tess and snapped, “Could you shut up?”

There was a second of silence as everyone stared at Liz and then Max spoke, “Fuck Liz. What’s your problem?”

She really didn’t want to cause a scene, she just wanted that stupid person to not talk during the movie, so she sank further into the bean bag and said, without looking at him, “It’s just a bit annoying when people talk during the movie.”

“She’s just asking questions,” Max answered, his voice tense.

Liz crossed her arms tightly across her chest. “Fine. Whatever. Just do it quietly.”

“Why are you being such a bitch?” Max asked, anger coloring his voice.

“Hey,” Michael intervened, but Liz had already straightened and was staring at Max heatedly.

“I’m being a bitch?” she questioned with dark eyes.

“Yes,” Max answered. “Tess is my guest and you’re treating her like shit.”

“Oh,” Liz huffed, his tone cutting into her. She wanted to explode with the unfairness of the situation, but she found herself at a loss of words as the pain in her chest numbed her. So instead of informing him of every single word that Tess had said to her earlier, she rose from the bean bag and walked away without another word.

“Lizzie, come on,” Michael yelled after her, but the tears were already rolling down her cheeks. There was no way she was going back there.

Then she heard Tess’ voice, which had her quickening her steps, “Max? Max, where are you going?”

He reached her just outside of her door, his fingers digging into her arm as he spun her around. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

She closed her eyes as he yelled into her face and missed the look of confusion cross his face as he noticed her tears.

She hit out with her arms, removing his hands from her arms and walked away from him. “Fuck you!”

He caught her again, his voice softer now, “Hey. She’s really a nice girl. Just give her a chance.”

Keeping her head down to hide her tears, she said tightly, “Yeah, whatever.” She was at the point where she would say anything he wanted to hear, just so he would let her go.

She was very close to breaking down and she really didn’t feel like doing so in front of him.

“She was trying to be nice to you and you just-“

“Nice,” she repeated, her voice hitching on an uncontrollable sob. “She was not…” Her voice failed her as another sob ripped through her.

His grip on her arms loosened and she pulled an arm free to press a hand against her eyes.

Liz looked up at him with wet eyes and said, “Yes, Max. I cry. And before you start accusing people, maybe you should get your facts straight.”

With that she stepped out of his hold and walked into her room, slamming the door behind her and leaving Max staring at the wooden barrier wondering what had just happened.

TBC...

Thank you everyone soooo much for the feedback (and some of you for posting feedback several times). I would love to respond to some of it (as I normally do), but I'm afraid that my messed up brain right now would say something that wouldn't make sense and just confuse you further. So, I'll just say this; I looooove all your feedback, every single thought!!

max and liz believer wrote:
My brain was so dead I couldn't even answer questions to what the most common clinical signs of right-sided heart failure were.

Man, I hate when that happens....

Yeah, doesn't that just suck?

Tanya

Behrsgirl77 wrote:Jo!

*waves*

It's good to see you back...

And it's good to be back Hi Tanya! *waves back*

bettylove8

Besides hating Tess, a lot of you were upset with Michael in the previous chapter. I haven't covered him much yet, so I understand if you're a bit confused about his role in all of this. The way I see it; the reason why he didn't do more when Max was being mean to his little sister is because he's resigned. He's like the mom of two screaming children below the age of two who just sits down on the couch and zones out. He's so used to them going on and on that he doesn't even bother anymore (one of you commented on this, and now I can't find that comment to quote it, but it was very true). He did try to intercept, which tells us that the argument was enough for him to bother at all. Yes, he didn't run after Max and Liz and that might've been wrong, but he's also human. He's sick and tired of their constant battles and doesn't even attempt to figure them out anymore.

Someone mentioned that Max might've thought Liz was PMS:ing and I thought that was a funny comment. I think that maybe Michael thought she was PMS:ing and that's why she was being so sensitive all of the sudden. Because the problem wasn't really what Max said or his tone of voice, it was more that he picked Tess' side and scolded Liz (embarrassed her) in front of the girl that had just more or less bullied her. And there was no way that Michael would be able to pick up on that.

So, I'm not saying that what Michael did, or didn't do, was correct. I'm just saying that he's not a heartless person that doesn't care if his friend abuses his sister. It's just a sad consequence of a looong series of incidents.

I've blabbered on for too long. If it doesn't make sense, blame it on the germs.

Let's step away from the whole Tess situation and all that drama, shall we?

10. Stranded

In the Middle of Nowhere
One month before Christmas
(2004) Michael is 20, Max is 19, Liz is 18

“Transformers are way cooler!”

“They’re not real!!”

“Oh and Ninja Turtles are?”

She huffed. “You know what I mean.”

“No, little Lizzie. You’re not making any sense.”

Mike sighed. “Would you two shut up for just a second?”

Without taking his eyes off Liz, Max answered his best friend. “We’re having an important discussion here.”

Mike sighed again. “Important my ass.”

“But Turtles are funny.”

“So’s your face.”

Liz’s head fell backwards with a loud exasperated sigh. “Would you stop that already?!”

Michael and Max were currently in this phase in their lives when every statement could be met with a ‘so is your face’ or ‘so is your mother’. It had been slightly funny when they had started, but five months of that crap kinda took the joy out of it.

Max opened his mouth to respond when the car started to shake and slow down. Horror filtered through Max’s eyes for a split second, disrupting his general cool countenance.

“What did you do?” he asked Michael, leaning in to look for any warning lights on the panel.

“I didn’t do anything. It just…” The car made some odd coughing sounds until it came to a complete stop. “…died.”

Liz stared at the two males occupying the front seats. She didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. The expression of horror mixed with concern for his ‘baby’ looked really amusing on Max’s face, while Michael looked really funny trying to pretend he wasn’t aware of the death glares Max was sending his way.

But twenty minutes later, Liz was very close to crying.

“Whose brilliant idea was it to take this piece of junk through the desert anyway?” Liz muttered.

“Shut up,” Max warned. No one called his dark blue 1968 Chevrolet Impala ‘a piece of junk’ and lived.

“You know, Maxie. They are building new cars now. New cars, so that you won’t have to drive around in old cars-“

“Liz-“ Michael warned, but it was too late.

“Would you shut up for a second?!” Max erupted, staring at her with wild eyes. Something that had Liz fascinated instead of intimidated. “You bitch and moan about the quality of my car when it would be nice if you would help us figuring out a solution!”

She shrugged. “That’s easy. Since you two boneheads have both dysfunctional cell phones, we just have to sit and wait for someone to pass by.”

Michael looked up from the display screen of his cell phone which was still displaying the lack of reception in this area. “How many cars have we met the last hour, Liz?”

Liz bit her lower lip. She had no idea. She had been concentrating on Max’s face the whole time to see his every facial expression as they battled out another battle of wills.

Looking nonchalant, she shrugged again. “About two.”

“Zero, Lizzie! No fucking cars whatsoever!”

“Hey,” Max said calmly to Michael, looking at Liz oddly. “Take it down a notch, Mike.”

Sure, Max had been the one screaming at Liz just a second ago, but he always screamed at Liz. Yelling was the foundation of their relationship. But Michael almost never raised his voice at his little sister and Max immediately saw the hurt creep into Liz’s eyes at Michael’s voice level.

“Okay, fine,” she bit out and turned her back to them so they couldn’t see her expression.

But she had a feeling Max already had. Even though they went on each other’s nerves most of the time, Max was the closest thing she had to a best friend. He seemed to be able to read her and tell what was wrong before she had even realized there was something wrong. It was unnerving at the best of times, but at least she knew that he would always be there. Even though it might be to pull her hair or just piss her off in general, he would be there.

Max wanted to step up to her and check so that she was okay, but Michael interrupted him. “What are we gonna do, Maxwell?”

Max looked down at his own dead phone, silently cursing himself for not charging it that morning, and sighed. “Maybe we just have to wait, like Lizzie said.”

“Oh now she has a point,” Liz grumbled softly from side of the road where she had sat down.

The corners of Max’s mouth twitched as Michael glared at her.

“Or maybe I should walk around and see if I can get reception anywhere,” Michael said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, do that,” Liz said sarcastically, as if it was the most ridiculous idea on the planet.

Michael stared at his two years younger sister and opened his mouth to possibly snap at her again when Max intercepted.

“Seems like a good enough idea.”

Liz scoffed. “Good idea? There’s probably as little reception hundred feet away as it is two miles away. In case you two haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of fucking nowhere.”

“Liz, you’re not helping,” Max said evenly.

They were all tightly wound and this was Liz’s classic response to frustration. Michael losing control over his feelings was also a classic sign of frustration and the two of them together right now equaled disaster.

“Okay, fine. Do your thing. How far are you gonna walk anyway?”

“I’ll walk along the road until I get reception or find a town, whatever comes first.”

Concern flickered across Liz’s face. “Do you really want to do this, Mike? Who knows what might be out there? You might be bitten by a snake and lay there dying without anyone knowing.”

And with that, Michael was off, headed for the longest walk of his life. For a guy who was generally too lazy to get up from the couch to open the door for the pizza delivery guy, that was saying a lot.

-----------------------------------------------

Twenty minutes later

“She was a whore anyway.”

“That’s really not a very nice thing to say, Shorty. She’s a person, you know.”

“Not like she can hear me,” Liz shrugged. “Probably wouldn’t even understand what I’m saying if she was standing close to me.”

“Yeah,” Max said seriously, dragging the stick around in the sand next to his folded leg. “You do tend to mumble.”

“I do not mumble,” Liz objected.

Max smiled, something Liz missed out on due to the fact that she was laying down in the stubble behind him, his back towards her.

“Yes, you do.”

“I do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do no- You’re an asshole.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Very mature, Lizzie. How old are you again?”

“None of your business.”

Before Max could comment on her illogic, Liz called out, “Oh my God!”

Her exclamation made Max look at her in alarm. “What’s wrong?”

Liz was already scrambling to her feet, excitement drowning her features. “There’s a cow!”

Max frowned. “There’s a cow?”

Liz laughed. “Yes, stupid. Over there!”

Max followed the line of Liz’s pointed finger and yes, there was a cow. Across the street. Staring at them.

Before Max had a chance to react, Liz was running across the street and was climbing into the paddock.

“Wait, Liz!” Max yelled, jumping up from his seated position to follow her.

She was already patting the cow as Max climbed into the paddock.

“Hello, baby,” she cooed, pressing her cheek up against the ruminant.

Max watched with an amused expression. “’Baby’? You know that she’s like ten times your weight, right?”

Liz ignored him. “Isn’t she adorable?”

Max refrained from snorting. “Yeah… Cute as a button.”

“I want a cow.”

Max laughed. “Kitten, what are you gonna do with a cow?”

“Milk it of course. Just imagine getting fresh milk every morning.”

“Do you know that they have to have calves regularly to keep producing milk? Where are you gonna put all the calves? In your roof-top garden in New York?”

“That’s not true. Those women in Africa continue to breast-feed until their kids are like six…”

“That’s just gross-“

“They continue to produce milk because there’s constant suction.” She blushed as the words left her mouth. God, did she just say that?

Max had to fight not to laugh at the way her face turned red. “Suction, huh?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m not really sure, Parker. Please explain.”

“Shut up. You’re such a guy.”

“Thank you for confirming that. I wasn’t really sure this morning in the shower.”

Liz scrunched up her face. “Eww. Mental image.”

Max stepped up close to her. “I bet I’m hot as hell in that mental image.”

“Stop it. There’s a cow here. You don’t talk about things like that in front of a cow.”

“I’m sure it won’t bother her. Maybe it will up her milk production.”

Liz looked at him disgusted. “I can’t believe I never fully realized how gross you really are. You’re possibly worse than Mike.”

Max looked offended. “Not possible.”

Liz gave him a lopsided smile. “Yeah, you’re right.” She patted the cow in silence, her thoughts miles away. “Nothing’s gonna happen to him, right?”

Max’s heart skipped a beat as he looked down into her worried eyes, but he quickly pushed the feelings to the side. Like he always did. “No, squirt. He’s a big guy. He can take care of himself. Maybe he can finally use that knowledge he’s acquired from watching all those ninja movies.”

Liz snorted, but Max could see her relax somewhat. “Yeah, right. Have you ever seen him practicing that stuff? He looks like an idiot.”

Max grinned. “Had the misfortune of walking in on him once…“

“He’s such a nerd.”

“Guess it runs in the family.”

“Ha. Funny.”

Turning her gaze upon the cow once again a thoughtful expression fell across her face. Before Max had a chance to ask her what was on her mind, she asked, “Have you ever ridden a cow?”

He stared at her dubiously, wondering if his ears were deceiving him. But he should know better when it came to Liz. Anything could come out of that mouth.

“Can’t say that I have,” he answered.

“We should do it,” Liz said with eyes glittering with excitement.

He raised an eyebrow. “You want to ride the cow?”

She turned to him with a large grin. “Yes.”

“No no,” Max said, “Let me rephrase that. You want to sit – on top of the cow – and ride it?”

Max shrugged, “I guess,” while he was smiling on the inside. This was going to be fun. Liz was already chickening out.

“Could you help me up?” Liz asked.

Max grinned. “My pleasure.”

Her eyes narrowed at the sight of his grin. “No funny business.”

He saluted. “No m’am.”

“Funny.”

“I try.”

“Whatever.”

“You want my help or not?”

“I’m waiting for you.”

Max sighed, “Okay,” and laced his fingers together to form a step that she could put her foot into.

She grabbed his shoulders and pushed herself upwards with one foot in his hands. Just as she turned to lean into the cow, the cow moved. This caused her to lose her balance and she fell over with a small shriek, almost pulling Max over as well.

The sight of Liz scrambling to regain a more respectable position than the one she had fallen into had Max laughing.

And then the cow decided to investigate what all the fuss was about and leaned around, stretching her long neck out so that she could nuzzle the human on the ground.

“Ugh,” Liz said, slightly disgusted but mostly scared by the large head coming her way.

This only made Max laugh even harder. He was having troubles to remaining on his feet.

Then the cow open its mouth, letting some grassy saliva run out along its long tongue.

“Max!” Liz shrieked, afraid that the cow was going to eat her. “Help!”

But Max was now sitting down in the grass, still laughing hard, not making a single attempt to help Liz out. Besides, it was not like the cow would have Liz for lunch.

The saliva dropped in a big splash on her forehead and she curled into a ball, whining, “Ew ew ew ew. Cow drool. It’s on my face. Get it off.”

Max wiped a tear out of his eye before grabbing her foot and pulling her away from the cow.

She sat up, frantically trying to clean her forehead with the sleeve of her shirt. Which was difficult since she was wearing a T-shirt.

“Ugh, gross gross gross.”

“Do you have any idea how funny you look?” Max laughed which stopped Liz in the midst of her wiping and she sent a death glare in his direction.

Gathering as much strength as she could, she kicked the shin of his leg.

“Hey!”

“Why didn’t you help me?” she asked, still glaring at him.

Max rubbed his leg, the temporary look of pain quickly disappearing from his face only to be replaced by previous merriment.

“You looked like you had it under control.”

Liz’s face darkened and she bit out, “I hate you.”

“I hate you too,” Max cooed and quickly pulled his upper body backwards as Liz’s hand came flying through the air intent on hitting him.

There was a few seconds of stillness as Liz and Max stared at each other in silent battle of the wills. Then, as if running by the same alarm clock, they simultaneously attempted to get up from their seated position. Before Liz could get a hold of Max, he was off, running down the meadow.

Liz ran as fast as she could, but even though she had always been fast, her short legs proved to be at her disadvantage.

“Ow,” Max heard behind him and while still running, he shot a glance over his shoulder to see Liz falling in the grass.